UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


The  Movement  of  Wages 

In  The  Cotton   Manufacturing   Industry 

of  New   England   Since    i860 


STANLEY   E.    HOWARD 


8  46 


t 


A  DISSERTATION 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

KACULTV  OF  PRINCETON  l'NI\'ERSITV 

IN  CANDIDACY  lOR  THE  DECREE 

OF  DOCTOR  OK  PIIILOSOPHV 


The  Movement  of  Wages 


In   the  Cotton    Manufacturing    Industry 

of  New  England 

Since   1860 


By  STANLEY  E.  HOWARD 
Assistant  Professor  of  Economics  in  Princeton  University 


BOSTON 
NATIONAL  COUNCIL  OF  AMERICAN  COTTON  MANUFACTURERS 
Boston,  Mass.  WAsiiiNcnoN,  D.  C.        Chariotie,  N.  C. 

1920 


COPYRIGHT,  1920 
By  Stanley  E.  Howard 


Printed  by  E.  L.  Barry 
Waltham,    Mass. 


u     'a-   "O-   *.« 


(V 


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CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.     The  Scope  and  Method  of  this  Investigation,     .....  5 

II.  Changes  of  Rates  of  Wages  at  Fall  River, 13 

Table  I.     Wages,  prices  ami  margins  at  Fall  River,  1875-1918,  .    .  17 

Chart  I.     Weaving  rates  and  margins  at  Fall  River,  1875-1918,     .  18 

Table  II.      Hypothetical   margins  and   wea\nng    rates    to    illustrate 

the  sliding  scale  agreement  of  October,  1905,     ...  22 

Table  III.  Actual  margins  and  rates  under  the  sliding  scale  agree- 
ment of  October,  1905, 23 

Table  I\'.     Schedule  of  margins  and  weaving  rates  pn^vided  by  the 

sliding  scale  agreement  of  May  14,  1907, 25 

Table  V.     Schedule  of  margins  and  weaving  rates  pro\nded  by  the 

revised  sliding  scale  agreement  of  Septembers,  1908,  27 

Table  \T.  .\ctual  margins  and  wages  under  the  sliding  scale 
\  agreement  of  May  14,  1907,   (revised  September  8, 

1908,) 29 

Tabic  \'II.     The  correlation  of    wages  and  prices  at   Fall   River, 

1881-1904,      30 

III.  The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Framings  in  the  Massachu- 

setts Cotton  Manufacturing  Industry,  1860-1891,     .    .  41 

Tabic  \'III.     Simple  medians  of  relative  full  time  earnings  in  the 

Massachusetts  cotton  industry,  i860- 1880,     ....  44 

Chart  II.     The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts 

cotton  industry,  1860-1880,  as  shown  by  the  method 

of  simple  medians, 45 

Table  I\.     The  movements  of  full  time  earnings  in  Massachusetts 

cotton  mills,  and  of  prices,  1860-1880, 46 

Chart  III.      I'he  movements  of  full  time  earnings  in  Massachusetts 

cotton  mills,  and  of  prices,  i86<')-l88o, 47 

Chart  I\".      The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts^ 

cotton  industry,  1860-1880;   by  sex  groups,     ....  48 

Table  X.     Relative  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  cotton 

industry  in  the  year  1880,      58 

Table  XI.     The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts 

cotton  industry,  1880- 1 89 1, 59 


1 89555 


4  WAC.ES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

Chapter  Page 

Chart  \'.     The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts 

cotton  industry,  1 880- 1 891, 60 

IV.  'I'hc    Movement  of  Full   Time  Earnings    in    the    Cotton 

Manufacturing   Industry  of  Massachusetts,  Maine  and 
Rhode  Island,  1890-1916, 62 

Table  XII.     The  movement  of  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  cotton 

industry,  1890- 1916, 66-67 

Table  XIII.     The    movement   of   earnings   in   the    Maine    cotton 

industry,  1890-1916, 68-69 

Table  XIV.     The  movement  of  earnings  in  the  Rhode  Island  cotton 

industry,  1890-1916, 70-71 

Chart  VI.  The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Massachu- 
setts cotton  industry,  1890-1916, 72 

Chart  VII.     The   movement  of   full   time  earnings  in  the  Maine 

cotton  industry,  1890- 1916, 73 

Chart  VIII.     The  movement  of  full  time  earnings  in  the  Rhode 

Island  cotton  industry,  1890- 1916, 74 

Table  XV.  The  percentage  distribution  of  employees  in  the  Mas- 
sachusetts cotton  industry  on  the  basis  of  weekly 
earnings,  1889-1916, 80 

Chart  IX.  The  distribution  of  employees  in  the  Massachusetts 
cotton  industry  on  the  basis  of  weekly  earnings,  1889- 
1916, 81 

V.  Fluctuations  of  Employment, 83 

Table  XVI.     Fluctuations    of    employment   in  the    Massachusetts 

cotton  industry,  1889-1916, 84 

Chart  X.     Fluctuations    of    Employment    in    the     Massachusetts 

cotton  industry,  1886- 1916, 86 

Table  XVII.  Unemployment  in  the  Massachusetts  cotton  industry, 
1886- 1916.  The  deviation  from  the  monthly  average 
number  of  employees, 85 

Table  XVIII.    Unemployment  in  the  Massachusetts  cotton  industry 

1886-1916.    The  operating  time  of  the  mills,     ...  89 

VI.  Conclusions, 91 

Table  XIX.     Wages   in    the    Massachusetts  cotton   manufacturing 

industry  and  general  prices,  i860- 191 8, 93 

Chart  XI.     Wages   in   the    Massachusetts    cotton    manufacturing 

industry  and  general  prices,  i860- 191 8, 94 


SCOPE    AND    METFiOD 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Scope  and  Method  of  this  Investigation 

At  a  time  like  the  present  when  there  is  at  hand  so  much 
unavoidable  and  important  work  of  economic  and  social  read- 
justment, it  seems  particularly  needful  that  there  be  on  the  part 
of  the  public  both  ability  and  willingness  to  view  the  problems 
that  arise  in  their  true  perspectives.  While  in  dealing  with  all 
economic  problems  a  thoroughgoing  knowledge  of  historical 
backgrounds  is  much  to  be  desired,  the  importance  of  such 
knowledge  is  especially  great  when  forces  of  great  dynamic 
power  have  been  and  still  are  at  work.  We  are  in  a  period 
of  upheaval  in  the  industrial  world.  Under  the  spur  of  urgent 
war  needs,  production  attained  in  terms  both  of  monetary  and 
of  technical  units  unprecedented  levels.  Labor  has  been  at  a 
premium  unprecedented  in  our  industrial  history.  Money 
wages  have  in  many  industries  been  very  markedly  advanced, 
and  that  industry  is  rare  in  which  there  has  been  no  advance  at 
all.  These  wage  changes  can  no  more  be  thought  of  as  standing 
by  themselves  than  can  the  diplomatic  and  military  events  of 
1914-1919.  The  present  monograph  is  therefore  offered  in  the 
hope  that  it  may  in  some  measure  contribute  to  public  knowl- 
edge of  historical  backgrounds  in  a  particular  portion  of  the 
field  of  industrial  problems. 

There  has  been  chosen  as  the  subject  of  investigation  the 
changes  of  wages  in  the  New  England  cotton  manufacturing 
industry  since  i860.  Thus  there  is  covered  a  period  of  nearly 
sixty  years,  embracing  two  important  war  periods,  those  of 
1861-1865  and  1914-1919,  and  both  the  period  of  declining 
price  movement  preceding  1897  and  that  of  rising  prices  since 
that  year. 

As  to  form  and  content  the  present  study  is  largely  statistical. 
Two   general  problems  have  presented  themselves :      First,  the 


6  WAGES    IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 

determination  of  the  detailed  facts  regarding  changes  of  wages; 
second,  the  discovery  of  the  more  important  causal  forces  pro- 
ducing these  changes.  Of  these  two  problems,  the  former  has 
been  stressed,  and  only  in  the  discussion  of  the  Fall  River 
sliding  scale  experiments  (in  Chapter  II)  and  in  the  analysis 
and  explanation  of  the  results  of  Professor  Mitchell's  work 
covering  the  greenback  period  (Chapter  III)  has  there  been  any 
considerable  attention  given  to  descriptive  and  explanatory 
materials  gathered  from  miscellaneous  sources  and  serving  to 
explain  the  evidence  of  the  statistical  exhibits.  In  Chapter  II 
the  analysis  of  market  conditions  in  their  relation  to  changes  of 
rates  of  wages  approaches  more  nearly  than  does  any  other 
part  of  the  study  the  presentation  of  critical  comment.  As  to  the 
miscellaneous  explanatory  materials  of  Chapter  III,  their  chief 
justification  as  a  part  of  the  present  work  lies  in  the  light  they 
throw  upon  the  developments  of  the  early  years  of  the  period 
covered  —  rather  important  developments  in  that  not  only  was 
there  in  them  a  radical  departure  from  the  pre-war  conditions 
of  i860  so  far  as  concerned  cotton  mill  employees  as  a  group, 
but  also  in  that  in  these  early  years  there  was  established  a  new 
relationship  of  the  wage  levels  of  the  sexes. 

Of  the  purely  statistical  part  of  the  subject  there  are  three 
main  divisions.  First,  there  is  that  which  relates  to  changes 
of  rates  of  wages  rather  than  to  changes  of  earnings.  This  topic 
is  treated  particularly  in  Chapter  II.  Attention  has  been  given 
to  the  history  of  the  weaving  piece  rate  at  Fall  River,  Massa- 
chusetts, as  being  at  once  the  best  available  and  a  fairly  accurate 
criterion  of  changes  of  rates  at  least  for  the  southern  New 
England  section  of  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry. 

Second,  there  is  that  division  which  relates  to  changes  in 
earnings,  and  more  particularly  to  changes  of  full  time  earnings. 
It  is  obvious  that  in  an  industry  in  which  the  principle  of  the 
division  of  labor  has  attained  a  high  degree  of  development,  a 
development  which  has  been  accompanied  by  considerable 
resort  to  piece  rate  methods  of  payment,  changes  of  rates  may 
or  may  not  result  in  proportionate  changes  of  earnings,  due  to 
the  complicating  influence  of  changes  in  the  technical  conditions 


SCOPE   AND    METHOD  7 

of  production.  And  again,  even  if  piece  rates  and  hourly  earn- 
ings do  not  change,  weekly  and  annual  relative  earnings  may  be 
modified  by  the  enactment  of  legislation  limiting  the  hours  of 
labor  of  certain  groups  of  workers,  as  women  and  minors  —  a 
restriction  upon  industrial  activity  which  from  obvious  considera- 
tions relating  to  skillful  factory  organization  and  management 
atifects  all  employees  regardless  of  sex  and  age.  The  assembling 
and  analysis  of  the  facts  relating  to  the  movement  of  full  time 
money  earnings  are  presented  in  Chapters  III  and  IV,  the  former 
showing  for  the  period  1860-1891  the  conclusions  based  chiefly, 
directly  or  indirectly,  upon  the  materials  of  the  Aldrich  Report 
of  1893;^  the  latter,  covering  the  years  1890- 191 6,  being  based 
upon  the  work  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
and  of  its  predecessor  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  and 
upon  the  work  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics. 

Finally,  as  is  necessary  in  any  statistical  examination  of  wage 
movements,  consideration  has  been  given  to  the  occurrence, 
regularly  or  irregularly,  of  conditions  of  unemployment.  Such 
conditions  frequently  modify  in  a  substantial  degree  the  showing 
made  by  statistics  of  relative  full  time  earnings.  This  topic  has 
been  treated  in  Chapter  V. 

In  Chapter  VI  there  is  presented  a  summary  of  the  statistical 
analysis  just  outlined.  The  curves  of  relative  full  time  earnings 
in  the  Massachusetts  section  of  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry 
for  1860-1891  and  1890-1916  are  united  into  a  single  curve  for 
the  entire  period,  using  the  year  i860  as  the  base.  Second, 
comparison  is  made  of  the  curve  of  relative  full  time  earnings 
thus  constructed  with  a  similar  curve  of  relative  wholesale 
prices  of  commodities  in  general,  to  reveal  the  movement  of 
real,  in  addition  to  and  in  comparison  with  that  of  money, 
wages.  Finally,  comparison  is  made  between  the  movements 
of  piece  rates  and  of  full  time  earnings,  to  secure  some  sugges- 
tion as  to  the  effects  of  technical  developments  upon  wage  con- 
ditions. It  should  be  clearly  understood  with  respect  to  the 
last  mentioned  topic  that  there  is  here  presented  only  a  sugges- 


I.     Senate  Committee  on   Kinance,   Kt-port  on  WholesaU  Prices,  on  Wa^cs,  onJ 
on  Transportation.    Senate  Reports,  521!  Congress,  2d  Session.    Report  1394,  pts.  1-4. 


8  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

tion  regarding  possible  interpretaions  of  the  statistical  evidence 
available.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  topic  may  sometime  be 
investigated  by  someone  who  not  only  has  ready  and  constant 
access  to  the  necessary  sources  of  information,  that  is,  to  the 
strictly  private  records  of  the  cotton  mills,  but  is  also  thoroughly 
familiar  by  reason  of  long  experience  with  the  complicated 
technique  of  the  industry. 

There  has  been  no  attempt  made  here  to  study,  with  a 
thoroughness  exceeding  that  already  applied  by  students  of 
economic  and  industrial  history,  the  history  of  the  labor  supply 
in  the  New  England  cotton  industry.  Obviously  the  supply 
has  two  fundamental  aspects,  quantity  and  quality.  As  regards 
the  former,  the  compilation  and  analysis  of  population  and 
occupation  statistics  could  add  little  of  value  for  present  pur- 
poses, since,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  recent  war  period,  within 
limits  of  very  general  principles  of  social  and  industrial  stratifi- 
cation there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  arbitrary  or  permanent  division 
of  the  industrial  population  into  non-interchangeable  classes, 
and  munitions  factories  have  drawn  heavily  on  textile  mills 
for  a  labor  supply.  Quantitative  changes  of  population,  from  a 
positive  point  of  view,  have  not  been  the  chief  factor  in  indus- 
trial adjustments,  and  to  compile  elaborate  figures  showing  such 
changes  would  add  little  to  the  value  of  this  study. 

In  general,  this  quantitative  change  of  labor  supply  has  been 
a  growth  from  about  122,000  cotton  mill  employees  in  the 
United  States  in  i860,  to  378,000  in  the  United  States  in  1910, 
of  whom  189,700  were  in  New  England.  Within  the  New 
England  group  of  states  Massachusetts  has  always  been  in  the 
lead,  showing  a  growth  of  from  38,500  in  i860  to  108,900  in 
1910.  These  are  United  States  Census  figures.  More  detailed 
figures  for  Massachusetts  are  presented  in  Chapter  V.  Following 
Massachusetts  in  the  order  of  numerical  importance,  the  other 
New  England  states  are  Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshire,  Maine 
and  Connecticut.  The  development  of  the  industry  in  Vermont 
is  so  small  as  to  be  almost  negligible. 

The  second  aspect  of  the  labor  supply  is  the  qualitative  one. 
In  this  connection  it  is  assumed  that  the  reader  is  familiar  with 


SCOPE   AND    METHOD  9 

the  fundamental  facts:  First,  tlie  increasing  resort  by  mann- 
facturers,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  to  individuals  representing 
the  successive  waves  of  luiropean  immigration  into  the  United 
States;  second,  the  fact  that  the  above  mentioned  change  has 
been  combined  with  the  constant  improvement  of  machinery 
and  processes  to  make  relatively  more  economical  the  employ- 
ment of  certain  immigrant  males  in  place  of  former  female 
employees,  particularly  in  those  departments  in  which  the 
physical  severity  of  the  work  to  be  performed  has  increased  as 
machinery  has  increased  in  size  and  weight;  and  third,  the  fact 
of  relatively  decreasing  employment  of  children  due  chief!)'  to 
restrictive  legislation  by  the  states,  in  which  matter  Massachu- 
setts has  consistently  been  in  the  lead  of  the  other  New  England 
states.  If  the  reader  is  unfamiliar  with  these  facts  let  him 
consult,  for  information  relating  to  the  cotton  manufacturing 
industr)',  Professor  M.  T.  Copeland's  volume  descriptive  of  the 
American  cotton  manufacturing  industry.^ 

Another  point  of  omission  in  this  study  is  the  detailed  con- 
sideration of  problems  connected  with  the  technique  of  the 
textile  manufacturing  processes.  Most  readers  will  be  suffic- 
iently familiar  with  the  fundamental  textile  processes  to  follow 
intelligently  the  work  of  statistical  compilation  and  anah'sis  in 
the  succeeding  chapters.  To  any  who  wish  more  detailed 
information  than  is  here  assumed,  there  is  recommended  the 
reading  of  Chapters  IV  and  V  of  Professor  Copeland's  book 
above  referred  to,  or  of  the  descriptive  materials  of  Bulletin 
239  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.- 

So  far  as  we  are  concerned  in  this  study  with  the  technicalities 
of  the  occupational  division  of  labor,  the  fact  of  chief  interest 
relates  to  the  influence  of  manufacturing  technique  upon  the 
conditions  of  collective  bargaining  and  upon  the  significance  of 
statistical  data  covering  the  matter  of  piece  rates. 

It  is  a  fundamental  prerequisite  of  successful  collective  bar- 
gaining   concerning    wages    that    there   be   some  considerable 


1.  Copeland,  M.  T.,  The  Cotton  Manuftiituring  Industry  of  the  Vnitdi  Stiitis. 

2.  United  States  Bureau  of  Lalxir  Statistics,  Hulletin  239.      H'ti^a  attil  Hours  of 
Labor  in  Cotton  Gooih  Manufacturing  and  Finishini^,  1916.      I'p.  140-205. 


10  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

degree  of  standardization  of  working  conditions  or  of  working 
rules.  And  it  is  a  regrettable  weakness  in  the  American  cotton 
manufacturing  industry  that  no  such  standardization  has  as  yet 
been  attained.  In  the  British  cotton  manufacturing  industry 
there  has  gradually  been  developed  a  set  of  standardized  wage 
scales,  that  is  scales  of  compensation  in  the  piece  working 
crafts  which  adjust  themselves  automatically  to  changed  condi- 
tions of  production  or  to  changes  of  products.  For  this  reason 
most"  English  weavers  are  protected  somewhat  against  the  risk 
of  accidental  or  intentional  reductions  of  earnings  caused  by 
incorrect  readjustment  of  piece  rates  as  the  width  of  the  cloth, 
the  fineness  of  the  warp  and  weft  threads,  the  number  of  threads 
per  square  inch,  and  the  speed  of  operation  of  the  machine 
are  changed.  Notwithstanding  intermittent  agitation  for  the 
construction  of  similar  standard  lists  in  the  United  States,  par- 
ticularly in  New  Bedford,  the  leading  center  of  the  American 
fine  goods  industry,  where  such  standardization  is  most  needed, 
it  has  not  been  possible  to  secure  agreement  thereon.  In  fact, 
opposition  of  employers  has  gone  so  far  that  it  has  not  been 
possible  to  secure  for  the  Massachusetts  laws  requiring  the 
attachment  to  all  weaving  work  of  cards  of  detailed  specifica- 
tions an  amendment  to  the  effect  that  these  specifications  be 
not  written  or  printed  in  a  code  necessarily  unintelligible  to 
the  workers.  Under  such  conditions  collective  bargaining 
whether  by  individual  unions  or  by  groups  of  unions  can  not 
attain  a  very  high  degree  of  development.  The  nearest 
approach  to  a  real  standard  list  of  piece  rates  in  the  New  Eng- 
land cotton  industry  is  the  mule  spinners'  list  at  Fall  River, 
agreed  to  by  the  union  of  mule  spinners  and  the  local  manu- 
facturers in  1889. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  statistician  the  absence  of  highly 
standardized  conditions  in  the  matter  just  discussed  is  of  prime 
interest  in  that  it  partially  explains  the  lack  of  close  correlation 
between  the  movement  of  piece  rates  and  that  of  full  time 
earnings. 

Regarding  union  organization  of  cotton  mill  employees 
something  is  said  in   Chapter  II  in  connection  with  the  sliding 


SCOPE    AND    METHOD  1  1 

scale  experiments  at  VM  River.  In  general,  the  New  England 
textile  industr)'  is  one  in  which  craft  organization  has  never 
been  very  strong,  a  fact  due  largely  to  the  low  degree  of  skill 
required  of  the  majority  of  the  workers  and  to  the  presence  of 
large  groups  of  immigrants  of  many  nationalities.  In  recent 
years  there  has  been  developing  considerable  antagonism 
between  the  old  craft  unions  and  the  industrial  organizations 
which  lean  toward  the  philosophy  and  the  policy  of  the  Indus- 
trial Workers  of  the  World. 

The  character  of  the  work  done  in  the  preparation  of  the 
succeeding  chapters  and  the  manner  of  presentation  of  results 
render  superfluous  the  publication  of  a  formal  bibliography. 
For  the  purely  statistical  work  the  chief  sources  have  been  the 
so-called  Weeks  Report  of  the  Tenth  Census,^  the  Aldrich 
Report  of  1893,  Professor  Wesley  C.  Mitchell's  excellent  volume 
on  Go/d,  Prices,  ami  Wages  under  the  Greenback  Standard,  the 
Annual  Reports  and  Bulletins  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor  and  of  its  successor,  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  and  the 
reports  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics,  particularly 
the  Reports  on  the  Statistics  of  Manufactures.  Throughout  the 
following  pages  care  has  been  taken  to  give  specific  references 
to  these  sources  and  to  explain  as  clearly  as  possible  the  modi- 
fications and  rearrangements  of  materials  made  for  the  purpose 
in  hand. 

Frequent  specific  references  are  made  in  the  text  and  in  foot- 
notes to  contemporary  accounts  in  commercial  and  financial 
journals  descriptive  of  industrial  conditions,  and  there  are  also 
frequent  references  to  books  and  pamphlets.  It  is  needless  to 
present  a  general  bibliography  of  useful  materials  in  view  of  the 
existence  in  print  of  a  very  complete  and  well  arranged  biblio- 
graphy covering  the  whole  subject  of  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
goods. ^    There   is   also   an   excellent  select  bibliograph)'  in  the 


1.  Weeks,  Josejih  D.,  Report  on  iJ'e  Statistics  of  liases  in  J/nnu/.iitnrin^' 
InJustries.  Tenth  Census  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  XX.  The  cotton  manufacturing 
industry  is  covered  in  pp.  327-367. 

2.  Woodbur)',  C.  J.  H.,  Bibliography  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture.  2  vols. 
(1909  and  1910).  Published  by  The  National  Association  of  Cotton  Manufacturers  of 
which  Mr.  Woodbury  was  then  secretary. 


12  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

appendix  of  l^rofessor  Copeland's  book.  The  reader  may  be 
interested,  for  purposes  of  comparison,  in  a  study  somewhat 
similar  to  the  present,  but  covering  the  British  section  of  the 
cotton  manufacturing  industry,  by  Mr.  G.  H.  Wood  of  the 
Royal  Statistical  Society.  ^ 

To  make  specific  reference  to  all  who  have  given  assistance 
in  the  preparation  of  this  monograph  would  be  impracticable. 
The  author  wishes,  however,  to  acknowledge  his  indebtedness 
to  Professors  F.  A.  Fetter  and  E.  W.  Kemmerer  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Economics  and  Social  Institutions  of  Princeton  Univer- 
sity and  to  Mr.  W.  M.  Adriance,  formerly  of  that  department, 
for  advice  and  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  the  manuscript, 
and  to  Mr,  A.  F,  Bemis  of  the  National  Council  of  American 
Cotton  Manufacturers,  for  co-operation  in  securing  publication 
at  this  time. 


I.  Wood,  George  Henr)',  The  Statistics  of  Wages  in  the  United  Kingdom  dur- 
ing the  Nineteenth  Century.  Parts  XV-XIX.  7^he  Cotton  Industry.  Journal  of  the 
Royal  Statistical  Society,  1910,  pp.  39-58,  128-163,  283-315,  411-434,  585-626. 


RATES    OF    WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER  13 


CHAPTER  II 
Changes  of  Rates  of  Wages  at  Fall  River  ' 

In  an  industry  like  that  of  cotton  cloth  manufacturing,  organ- 
ized to  a  large  degree  upon  the  principle  of  the  division  of 
labor,  and  in  which  there  is  a  great  diversity  of  products  and  of 
technical  conditions  of  operation  from  town  to  town,  from  mill 
to  mill,  and  from  one  mill  department  to  the  next,  the  study  of 
the  movement  of  rates  of  wages  is  at  best  difficult.  In  the 
American  cotton  manufacturing  industry  changes  in  technical 
processes,  equipment  and  products  have  been  rapid,  the  opera- 
tive force  has  been  continually  changing  as  regards  its  racial 
composition,  union  organization  and  arrangements  for  collective 
bargaining,  except  in  special  cases,  have  been  weak  and  some- 
what temporary,  and  there  has  consequently  not  evolved  any 
very  considerable  standardization  of  rates  of  wages.  The  result 
is  that  materials  for  the  study  of  movements  of  rates  of  wages 
are  limited. 

However,  at  F"all  River,  Massachusetts,  the  leading  cotton 
manufacturing  city  of  the  United  States,  collective  bargaining 
has  attained  some  strength,  the  representatives  of  the  chief 
craft  organizations^  being  organized  into  a  Textile  Council, 
which  deals  on  behalf  of  all  the  operatives,  so  far  as  occupa- 
tional classification  is  concerned,  with  the  Cotton  Manufacturers' 
Association  of  the  city.'^   The  latter  organization  represents  and 


1.  This  chapter  is  based  upon  an  article  by  the  author  under  the  title  The  Fall 
River  Slidini;  Scale  F.xperinuttt  of  iqoji-igio,  appearing  in  the  American  Economic 
Review,  Vol.  VII,  No.  3,  pp.  530-552  (September,  1917).  The  materials  there  used 
have  been  revised  and  extended.  Due  acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  editors  of  the 
American  Economic  Review  for  permission  to  use  them  in  the  present  larger  work. 

2.  The  unions  of  mule  spinners,  weavers,  slasher  tenders,  carders  and  lo<im 
fixers. 

3.  Formed  April  19,  1873,  as  the  Manufacturers'  Board  of  Trade.  The  name 
was  changed  to  its  present  form  October  27,  1890.  Collective  bargaining  was  first 
participated  in  on  January  30,  1875,  when  the  association  dealt  with  a  committee  of 
weavers.  The  present  Textile  Council  is  first  mentioned  in  the  Association's  records 
on  February  20,  1899. 


14  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

acts  for  nearly  all  the  mills  in  Fall  River.  While  one  or  two 
mills,  notably  the  Fall  River  IronVVorks,  insist  upon  dealing  with 
their  own  employees  upon  an  independent  basis,  the  wage 
policies  of  these  establishments  are  not  widely  at  variance  with 
those  of  the  Association. 

A  second  condition  favorable  to  the  purposes  of  the  present 
investigation  is  the  fact  that  Fall  River  is  the  center  of  the  plain 
rather  than  of  the  fine  goods  manufacture,  so  that  the  absence 
of  a  high  degree  of  standardization  of  rates  as  between  mills  and 
departments  constitutes  a  difificulty  of  diminished  significance. 
That  is,  since  products  are  less  diversified  than  elsewhere  there 
is  greater  probability  of  changes  of  rates  of  wages  being  applied 
impartially  to  all  employees  regardless  of  the  technical  condi- 
tions of  their  work. 

Third,  it  happens  that  there  is  public  record  of  the  weaving 
rates  paid  at  Fall  River  for  a  cut  of  45  yards  of  28  inch  64x64 
print  cloth,  going  back  as  far  as  1875.  This  particular  piece 
rate  has  been  used  for  years  as  the  basis  for  discussion  of  wage 
advances  and  reductions.  Changes  of  rates  of  wages  are  com- 
monly expressed  by  percentage  figures.  The  understanding 
has  been  that  whatever  rate  per  cent,  of  change  occurs  in  the 
weaving  rate  shall  apply  to  all  workers  in  all  departments  of 
the  mills  coming  under  the  collective  agreements.^  And  to 
know  the  actual  weaving  rates  applying  to  a  particular  mill 
product  is  of  immense  advantage,  for  thereby  there  is  eliminated 
much  probability  of  misunderstanding  as  to  the  bases  used  in 
calculating  given  wage  changes.^ 

Finally,  it  should  be  noted  that  changes  of  wages  at  Fall 
River  are  generally  regarded  as   indicative  of  changing  condi- 


1.  On  one  occasion,  that  of  a  general  strike  at  Fall  River  in  1894,  the  mule 
spinners  received  an  advance  of  5  per  cent.,  although  none  of  the  other  operatives 
received  any  advance.     This  w-as  an  exceptional  case. 

2.  For  example,  if  a  piece  rate  is  advanced  on  January  i  of  any  year  from  20 
cents  to  21  cents,  there  is  an  advance  of  5  per  cent.  Concerning  this  there  is  no 
difificulty.  Suppose,  however,  that  at  the  end  of  three  months  the  piece  rate  drops  to  20 
cents.  The  reduction  is  approximately  4.76  per  cent.  But  such  accuracy  of  expression 
is  rarely  found  in  available  records.  Rather  the  popular  \4ew  is  that  both  the  advance 
and  the  reduction  were  at  the  rate  of  5  per  cent. 


RATES    OF   WACES    AT    FALL    RIVER  15 

tions  throughout  the  New  England  cotton  industry.  This  state- 
ment does  not  mean  that  Fall  River  always  leads  New  England 
in  making  changes  of  wages.  In  191 2,  for  example,  Fall  River 
and  other  Massachusetts  mill  cities  adopted  a  policy  of  watchful 
waiting,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Lawrence  strike  changes 
of  wages  were  made  in  accord  with  the  results  attained  at  Law- 
rence. But  from  a  historical  point  of  view  changes  at  Fall 
River  arc  without  doubt  the  most  accurate  available  index  of 
wage  changes  throughout  the  mills  of  New  England.' 

Table   I   and  Chart  I    present  the  chief  facts  relative  to  the 
changes  of  the  standard  weaving  rate  at  Fall  River  since  1875.2 


1.  Cf.  also  a  statement  (much  more  emphatic  than  this)  made  by  a  Fail  River 
manufacturer,  quoted  in  the  Textile  Manufacturers'  Review  and  Industrial  Record, 
April  27,  1895,  pp.  10,  II. 

2.  The  weaving  rates  actually  in  force  have  been  taken  from  (i )  a  table  given 
by  Mr.  J.  T.  Lincoln  on  pages  461,  462,  of  an  article,  The  Slidinq  Sra/e  of  Wages  in 
the  Cotton  Industry,  Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  Vol.  XXIII,  pp.  450-469;  (2)  a 
table  of  rates  presented  on  page  22  of  the  Member's  Contribution  Book  of  the  Card 
and  Picker  Room  Protective  Association  of  Fall  River  and  \'icinity:  and  (3)  tables 
published  from  time  to  time  in  the  New  York  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle  in 
the  annual  report  on  cotton  and  cotton  manufacture,  e.  g.,  August  31,  1918,  p.  S69. 
This  annual  report  is  published  usually  late  in  .August  or  early  in  September. 

The  weighted  average  weaving  rate  prevailing  each  year  was  found  by  weighting 
each  rate  prevailing  at  any  time  during  the  year  by  the  number  of  weeks  the  rate  was 
actually  in  force;  e.  g.,  in  1899  the  weavers  worked  8  weeks  at  a  piece  rate  of  16 
cents,  41  weeks  at  18  cents,  and  3  weeks  at  19.80  cents.  The  weighted  average  rate 
for  1899  is  therefore  17.80  cents.  On  account  of  ignorance  of  the  exact  dates  of  the 
changes  of  rates  of  wages  in  1875,  1876,  1878  and  1880,  figures  for  these  years  have 
not  been  computed  for  insertion  in  columns  5  and  6. 

The  price  data  are  from  Professor  M.  T.  Copeland's  The  CotiOn  Manufacturing 
Industry  of  the  United  States,  Appendix,  p.  393,  supplemented  by  figures  from  the 
Statistical  Abstract  of  the  United  States  (from  which  Professor  Copeland's  figures  were 
evidently  taken). 

The  figures  representing  the  annual  average  margins  of  profits  for  the  years  1880- 
1910,  are  from  Professor  Copeland's  Ixjok.  The  margins  for  the  years  1S75-1879  and 
191 1-1917  have  been  computed  by  the  present  writer.  The  "  margin  of  ]irofit  "  which 
was  involvetl  in  the  sliding  scale  agreements  of  1905- 1906  and  1907- 1910  and  which 
was  considered  by  Governor  Douglas  in  the  arbitration  of  the  dispute  of  1904-1905 
was  a  margin  of  profit  per  unit  of  product — the  differential  between  the  cost  of  a  certain 
amount  of  raw  cotton  and  the  price  of  the  cloth  into  which  the  raw  material  was  con- 
verted. The  exact  method  of  computation  nnder  both  agreements  and  as  used  in  the 
construction  of  Table  I  may  be  reduced  to  the  following  rules. 


16  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

Multiply  the  price  of  middling  upland  cotton  by  8  (to  get  the  price  of  8  pounds); 
multiply  the  selling  price  per  yard  of  28-inch  64x64  print  cloth  by  45  (the  number  of 
yards  m  a  cut);  multiply  the  selling  price  per  yard  of  3832  inch  64x64  print  cloth  by 
33.11  (the  number  of  yards  in  a  cut);  add  these  last  two  products;  divide  by  2;  deduct 
the  price  of  the  8  pounds  of  middling  upland  cotton. 

For  example,  using  the  data  for  1881 :  Cents. 

45  yards  28"  64x64  print  cloth  at  3.95  cts.       =  177-75 

33.11  yards  38}^  64x54  print  cloth  at  7  cts.      =  231.77 


Sum  —  409.52 

Divide  by  2  204.76 

8  pounds  middling  upland  cotton  at  12.03  ^Is.  ==  96.24 


Margin  of  profit  =  108.52 

In  the  fourth,  sixth  and  eleventh  columns  the  actual  weaving  rates  in  force,  the 
weighted  average  weaving  rates,  and  the  annual  average  margins  of  profit  are  converted 
into  series  of  index  numbers,  using  the  figures  for  1881  as  the  base  (100).  This  base 
was  selected  because  ( i )  seemed  desirable,  in  the  case  of  the  weaving  rates,  to  use  as 
a  base  a  rate  that  was  actually  paid  at  some  time  rather  than  an  average  of  any  series 
of  rates;  (2)  the  weaving  rate  of  21  cents  prevailed  for  a  longer  continuous  period 
than  any  other  rate  in  the  early  part  of  the  period  under  study;  (3)  the  exact  date 
when  the  weaving  rate  of  21  cents  reported  for  1880  became  operative  is  not  known  to 
the  writer,  and  therefore  it  has  not  been  possible  to  find  the  weighted  average  rate 
prevailing  in  1S80;  and  (4)  it  seemed  advisable  not  to  go  back  into  the  greenback 
period  for  the  selection  of  a  base. 

Chart  I  presents  for  the  entire  period  1875-191S  cur\-es  showing  the  movements  of 
actual  weaving  rates  and  of  annual  average  margins.  In  this  chart  the  scale  at  the  left 
measures  the  movement  of  wages,  while  that  at  the  right  measures  the  movement  of 
margins. 

In  Table  I  and  Chart  I,  18.63  cents  per  cut  (the  average  rate  under  the  first 
sliding  scale  agreement)  is  used  as  the  rate  prevailing  from  October,  1905  to  July,  1906. 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    HIVER 


17 


TABLE  I 
Wages,  Prices,  and  Margins  at  Fall  River,    1875-1918 


Changes  of  Wages. 

Annual  averages  of 

wages,  prices  and  margins. 

W    M 

(A 

M   M 

1 

(A 

hs.: 

I.   4( 

4> 

1.    U 

c 

b 

UI 

vt 

u 
c« 
M 

3 
New  weavini 
rates  in  force 

4 

Index  numbe 

ofweavingrat 

Base  (100) 

=21.00  cents 

u 

10     c 
> 

1              6 

'Index  numbe 

jofweavinerat 

Base  (100) 

=21.00  cents 

Middling 
upland  cotIo; 
j      per  pound. 

8 

28  inch 

print  cloth 

per  yard 

38%  inch 
print  cloth 
per  yard. 

10 

Margins. 

11 

Index  numbe 
of  margins 
Base  (100) 

=108.52  cents 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Centb) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

187s 

21.00 

100.00 

15.46 

5-33 

8.71 

140.43 

129.40 

1876 

19.00 

90.48 

12.98 

4.10 

7.06 

105.28 

97.00 

1877 

11.82 

4.38 

6.77 

116.05 

106.93 

1878 

18.00 

85.72 

11.22 

3-44 

6.09 

88.45 

81.50 

1879 

10.84 

3-93 

6.25 

105.17 

96.90 

1880 

21.00 

100.00 

II. 51 

4.51 

7.41 

132-07 

1 2 1 . 70 

I88I 

100.00 

21.00 

100.00 

12.03 

3-95 

7.00 

108.52 

100.00 

1882 

21.00 

100.00 

I  1.56 

3.76 

6.50 

99-73 

91.90 

1883 

21.00 

100.00 

11.88 

3.60 

6.00 

85.79 

79.06 

1884 

Feb.  4 

18.50 

88.10 

18.71 

89.10 

10.88 

3-36 

6.00 

87.89 

80.99 

1885 

Jan.  19 

16.50 

78.58 

16.78 

79.91 

10.45 

3.12 

6.00 

85-93 

79.18 

1886 

Mar.  I 

18.15 

86.44 

17.89 

85.20 

9.28 

3-31 

6.00 

97-57 

89.90 

1887 

18.15 

86.44 

10.21 

3-33 

6.00 

92.58 

85-31 

1888 

Feb.  13 

19.00 

90.48 

18.90 

90.00 

10.03 

3-8i 

6-50 

113.09 

104.20 

1889 

19.00 

90.48 

10.65 

3-8i 

6.50 

108.14 

99.64 

1890 

19.00 

90.48 

11.07 

3-34 

6.00 

85.92 

79-17 

I89I 

19.00 

90.48 

8.60 

2-95 

6.00 

96.90 

89.29 

1892 

July  11 
Dec.  5 

19.60 
21.00 

93-34 
100.00 

19-39 

92-34 

7.71 

3-39 

6.25 

118.10 

108.83 

'893 

Sept.  u 

18.00 

85-72 

20.03 

95-38 

8.56 

3-30 

5-25 

92.69 

85.41 

1894 

Aug.  30 

16.00 

76.20 

17-34 

82.58 

6-94 

2.75 

4.90 

102.47 

94-42 

1895 

Apr.    22 

18.00 

85.72 

17-38 

82.76 

7-44 

2.86 

5-25 

96.74 

89.14 

1896 

18.00 

85.72 

7-93 

2.60 

4.66 

74-21 

68.39 

1897 

18.00 

85-72 

7.00 

2.48 

4.70 

77.61 

71-52 

1898 

Jan.  1 

16.00 

76.20 

16.00 

76.20 

5-94 

2.06 

3-96 

64.90 

59.80 

1899 

Feb.  27 
Dec.  II 

18.00 
19.80 

85.72 
94.28 

17-79 

84-72 

6.88 

2.69 

4.25 

70.84 

65.28 

1900 

19.80 

94.28 

9-25 

3.21 

5.00 

81.00 

74-64 

I9OI 

19.80 

94.28 

8.75 

2.84 

4.62 

70.38 

64.86 

1902 

Mar.  17 

21.78 

103.72 

21.36 

101.72 

9.00 

311 

5.00 

80.75 

74.41 

1903 

Nov.  23 

19.80 

94.28 

21.55 

102.63 

II. 18 

3-25 

5.00 

66.46 

61.24 

1904 

July  25 

17-32 

82.48 

1S.55 

88.34 

11-75 

3-44 

5.00 

66.18 

60.98 

1905 

Oct.  30 

1S.63 

88.62 

17-54 

•83-52 

9.80 

3-13 

4-75 

70.66 

65.12 

1906 

July  2 
Nov.  26 

19.80 
21.78 

94.28 
103.72 

19-39 

92.34 

11.50 

3-63 

5.12 

74-44 

68.60 

1907 

May  27 

23.96 

114. II 

23.08 

109.92 

12.10 

4.62 

6.00 

106.48 

98.12 

1908 

May  26 

19.66 

93.62 

21-39 

101.86 

10.62 

3-5° 

5-37 

82.69 

76.20 

1909 

19.66 

93.62 

12.68 

367 

5.06 

64.90 

59-80 

I9IO 

19.66 

93.62 

15. II 

3-87 

5.62 

59.24 

54-59 

I9II 

19.66 

93.62 

13.01 

3-54 

5.24 

62.32 

57-42 

1912 

Mar.  25 

21.62 

102.96 

21.16 

100.76 

1 1.52 

3-82 

5.22 

80.21 

73-9' 

I9I3 

21.62 

102.96 

12.80 

3.86 

5.40 

73-85 

68.05 

1914 

21.62 

102.96 

II. 13 

3-48 

5-'9 

75-18 

69-27 

I9I5 

21.62 

102.96 

10.14 

3-27 

5-«9 

78-38 

72.22 

I9I6 

Jan.  24 
May  I 
Dec.  4 

22.71 
24.98 
27.48 

108.15 
118.97 
130.86 

24.36 

116.00 

14.45 

4.60 

7.20 

107.10 

98.68 

I9I7 

June  4 

30-23 

143-96 

29.36 

139.82 

23-49 

7.18 

10.79 

152.26 

140.28 

Dec.  3 

34.02 

162.00 

1918 

June  3 

39-12 

186.30 

36.96 

176.00 

18 


WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


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I   I  I  M  I  I  I 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER  19 

The  period  studied  in  this  chapter  falls  into  three  divisions; 
first,  the  period  from  1875  to  October  30,  1905  ;  second,  the 
period  from  October  30,  1905  to  May  30,  1910;  third,  the 
period  from  May  30,  1910  to  the  date  of  completion  of  the 
present  monograph.  The  first  and  third  periods  enumerated 
above  do  not  differ  from  each  other  in  essentials,  except  so  far 
as  a  portion  of  the  third  period  has  been  characterized  by  war 
conditions.  During  these  two  periods  wages  in  the  Fall  River 
cotton  manufacturing  industry  have  been  determined  by  the 
operation  of  competitive  forces.  In  the  second  period,  how- 
ever, there  occurred  a  most  interesting  experiment  in  wage 
determination  by  the  method  of  the  sliding  scale.  It  is  in  con- 
nection with  this  experiment  that  the  facts  concerning  changes 
of  rates  of  wages  in  the  earlier  and  later  periods  have  their 
chief  interest. 

Inspection  of  column  3  of  Table  I  and  of  the  solid  line  on 
Chart  I  shows  that  in  the  thirty  years  preceding  the  sliding 
scale  agreements  changes  of  rates  of  wages,  although  quite 
frequent,  kept  within  a  relatively  narrow  range.  The  initial 
rate  in  the  series,  21  cents  per  cut,  in  1875,  was  also  the  highest 
rate  during  this  thirty  year  period  with  the  single  exception  of 
the  rate  of  21.78  cents  per  cut  paid  between  March  17,  1902 
and  November  23,  1903.  The  lowest  rate  in  force  at  any  time 
in  this  first  period  was  16  cents  (from  August  30,  1894  to  April 
22,  1895,  ^"^  from  January  i,  1898  to  February  27,  1899). 
These  two  short  periods  of  extreme  depression  of  the  rates 
reflect  respectively  the  general  industrial  depression  succeeding 
the  panic  of  1893  and  the  more  local  depression  exhibited  by 
the  New  England  section  of  the  American  cotton  industry 
due  to  the  keenness  of  developing  competition  by  the  southern 
mills.  During  this  early  thirty  year  period  there  appears  no  one 
consistent  or  clearly  defined  upward  or  downward  movement 
of  the  rates.  There  can  not  be  traced  clearly  a  direct  reflection 
of  the  course  of  general  commodity  prices  downward  until  1896, 
although  there  is  some  suggestion  of  the  upward  swing  of 
industrial  prosperity  since  that  date.  Supposedly  the  fluctua- 
tions of  the   piece  rate,  nearly  a  score  in  number,  were  in  the 


20  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

main  due  to  conditions  peculiar  to  the  cotton  munufacturing 
industry.  That  a  relationship  exists  between  rates  of  wages  and 
conditions  in  the  markets  for  cotton  and  cotton  cloth  early  found 
lodgment  in  the  minds  of  both  employers  and  employees, 
particularly  the  former,  familiar  as  they  were  with  the  account- 
ing aspects  of  the  wage  problem.  And  the  particular  formulation 
of  the  relationship  was  that  wages  at  Fall  River  have  fluctuated 
with  the  "margin  of  profit" — that  is,  the  margin  between  the 
cost  of  raw  cotton  entering  into  certain  grades  of  goods  and 
the  selling  prices  of  these  goods.  The  margin  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  an  index  of  the  prosperity  and  wage-paying  ability  of 
the  industry,  and  was  the  basis  for  the  sliding  scale  arrangement 
made  following  the  strike  of  1904. 

On  July  14,  1904,  after  a  period  in  which  conditions  in  the 
industry  had  been  unsatisfactory  both  to  the  employers  and  to 
the  employees,  during  which  period  unemployment  had  been 
abnormally  large  and  wages  in  the  Fall  River  mills  had  been 
reduced  about  10  per  cent,  (in  November,  1903),  it  was 
announced  in  the  mills  represented  in  the  Cotton  Manufacturers' 
Association  that  on  July  25  there  would  be  a  further  reduction 
of  1234  per  cent.  As  a  result  there  occurred  what  is  known  in 
the  industry  as  the  "great  strike  of  1904."  For  nearly  six 
months  the  Fall  River  cotton  industry  was  at  a  standstill. 
Finally  work  was  resumed  on  January  18,  1905,  on  the  basis  of 
an  agreement  "  that  Governor  Douglas  should  investigate  the 
matter  of  margins  between  the  cost  of  cotton  to  the  mill  owners 
and  the  selling  price  of  cloth,  and  submit  his  conclusions  as  to 
an  average  margin,  upon  which  the  manufacturers  should  pay 
a  dividend  of  5  per  cent,  on  the  wages  earned  from  January  18 
to  April  i."^ 

On  May  17,  Governor  Douglas  reported  that  a  margin  of 
74.38  cents  was  necessary  to  justify  a  wage  "dividend"  of  5 

I.  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  September  9,  1905,  p.  808.  See  also 
Textile  World  Record,  Vol.  XXIX,  p.  593,  and  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Concilia- 
tion and  Arbitration,  Annual  Report,  January,  1906,  pp.  20-22.  The  last  mentioned 
source  gives  Governor  Douglas'  full  report.  For  an  explanation  of  the  method  ordi- 
narily used  in  computing  the  margin  of  profit,  see  the  note  accompanying  Table  I  and 
Chart  I.    Governor  Douglas  used  only  one  set  of  cloth  prices  in  estimatingjthe  margin. 


RATES    OF    WACiES   AT    FALL    RIVER  21 

percent.  The  margin  on  January  i8  had  been  67.80  cents,  and 
had  .steadily  grown  smaller.  The  reduction  of  the  weaving  rate 
to  17.32  cents  per  cut  was  therefore  accepted  by  the  operatives, 
with  the  understanding  that  with  the  improvement  of  trade  the 
mills  would  move  wages  up  toward  the  level  at  which  they  had 
stood  before  the  reduction  of  November,  1903. 

On  October  17,  1905,  the  Manufacturers' Association  made  to 
the  operatives  in  the  mills  included  in  the  organization  a  propo- 
sition as  follows.'  Beginning  October  23  wages  should  be 
increased  about  5  per  cent.  In  addition,  a  sliding  scale  agree- 
ment should  be  made,  according  to  which,  whenever  the 
employers'  margin  of  profit  (to  be  figured  as  the  difference 
between  the  price  of  raw  cotton  and  that  of  regular  print  cloth) 
should  exceed  75  cents,  there  should  be  a  wage  dividend  or 
premium  of  i  per  cent,  for  each  cent  the  margin  stood  above 
75  cents  up  to  a  margin  of  85  cents;  and  that  for  each  cent  the 
margin  should  exceed  85  cents  up  to  a  maximum  of  95  cents 
there  should  be  an  additional  wage  premium  of  one-half  of  i 
per  cent.  Calculations  of  margins  and  of  wages  should  be 
made  at  the  end  of  four-week  periods,  and  the  wage  premiums 
should  be  given  to  employees  of  at  least  two  weeks'  standing. 

Immediately  following  this  proposal  of  the  Manufacturers' 
Association,  the  Fall  River  Iron  Works  announced  an  advance 
of  about  14  per  cent,  on  the  rates  of  wages  prevailing  before 
January  23,  1905."^  Dissatisfaction  among  the  employees  of 
the  other  mills  caused  by  this  move  gave  rise  to  talk  of  a  strike 
to  secure  similar  concessions  from  the  Manufacturers'  Associa- 
tion.-'^ This,  however,  was  soon  quieted,  the  Textile  Council 
coming  to  an  agreement  with  the  employers  on  October  25. 

The  arrangements  then  made  embraced  the  same  scale  of 
graduated  rates  suggested  in  the  employers'  proposal  of  October 
17,  except  that  72.5  cents  rather  than  75  cents  was  agreed  upon 
as  the  base  margin  for  a  wage  of  18  cents  per  cut  for  weaving 
regular  print  cloth.     The  base  rate  of  18   cents  was  to  be  the 


1.  Chronicle,  October  2 1 ,  1905,11.  1268. 

2.  Ibid.,  pp.  126S,  1269. 

3.  Ibid,,  October  28,  1905,  p.  1329. 


22 


WAC.ES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


minimum  rate.  The  proposed  maximum  margin  of  95  cents 
beyond  which  the  wage  should  not  shde  was  excluded  from  the 
agreement.  And  in  place  of  calculations  of  average  margins 
and  wages  at  intervals  of  four  weeks,  provision  was  made  for 
weekly  changes  of  rates.  In  the  calculation  of  the  margin,  two 
grades  of  cloth  (28-inch  and  38>^-inch  64  x  64  prints)  were  to 
be  considered.  It  was  tacitly  agreed  that  the  sliding  scale 
should  be  given  a  fair  trial  for  one  year.^  The  following 
schedule  of  hypothetical  margins  and  weaving  rates  under  the 
agreement  of  October,  1905,  may  help  the  reader  to  visualize 
the  plan  of  wage  determination  and  to  make  comparison  with 
later  schedules. 

TABLE  II 

Hypothetical  Margins  and  Weaving  Rates  to  Illustrate  the  Sliding 
Scale  Agreement  of  October,  1905 


Margins. 

Weaving  Rates. 

Margins. 

Weaving  Rates. 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

"5 

22.95 

85 

20.25 

1 10 

22.50 

80 

19-35 

105 

22.05 

75 

18.45 

95 

21.15 

72.5 

18.00 

This  first  formal  sliding  scale  experiment  was  of  short  dura- 
tion. For  this  there  were  two  chief  reasons.  First,  under  this 
agreement,  the  average  weaving  rate  in  force  was  only  18.63 
cents  per  cut  of  regular  print  cloth ;  which  constituted  an 
average  "wage  premium"  of  only  3.5  per  cent.,  or  only  about 
one-half  of  the  desired  restoration  of  wages  to  the  level  prevail- 
ing between  November,  1903  and  July,  1904.  Second,  the  rates 
of  wages  paid  fluctuated  so  violently  from  week  to  week  (see 
Table  III)   that  the  operatives  became  much  dissatisfied  and 


I .  Some  sources  for  the  terms  of  this  agreement  are :  Chronicle,  November  4, 
1905,  p,  1385;  Lincoln,  loc.  cit.,  p.  456;  Massachusetts  Labor  Bulletin,  No.  38,  p. 
342,  No.  41,  pp.  192-196;   Textile  World  Record,  vol.  XXX,  pp.  361-363. 


RATES    OF   WAGES   AT    FALL    RIVER 


23 


were  led  to  question  the  validity  of  the   theoretical   foundation 
of  the  experiment.^ 

TABLE  III  •-' 

Actual  Margins  and  Rates  under  the  Sliding  Scale  Agreement  of 
October,  1905 


•0 

•0 

•0 
c 

c 

vB 
bos 

be 

>  i 

V 

•0 
c 

c 
"bi 

Ms 

be 
5  «>■ 

V 

^1 

V 

S5 
is" 

1905 

(Cents) 

(Per  Cent.) 

(CenU) 

1906 

(Cents) 

(Per  Cent.) 

(CenU) 

Oct.  27 

77.00 

5 

18.90 

Mar.  3 

82.85 

10 

19.80 

Nov.  3 

75-70 

3 

18.54 

"    10 

80.19 

8 

19.44 

"    10 

71.40 

0 

18.00 

"    17 

81.27 

9 

19.62 

"    17 

74.00 

2 

18.36 

"    24 

77.82 

5 

18.90 

««   24 

73-50 

I 

18.18 

"    31 

75-42 

3 

18.54 

Dec.   I 

75.20 

3 

18.54 

Apr.    7 

76.15 

4 

18.72 

"      8 

72.40 

0 

18.00 

"    14 

7";. 02 

3 

18.54 

"    15 

75.02 

3 

18.54 

"    21 

74.82 

2 

18.36 

«   22 

73-76 

I 

18.18 

"    28 

75-55 

3 

18.54 

"    29 

75-37 

3 

18.54 

May      5 

72.85 

0 

18.00 

1906 

"      12 

71.40 

0 

18.00 

Jan.    S 

76.41 

4 

18.72 

"    19 

70.68 

0 

18.00 

"     12 

78.09 

6 

19.08 

"    26 

71.14 

0 

18.00 

««     19 

75-23 

3 

18.54 

June     2 

73.28 

0 

18.00 

'«     26 

75-56 

3 

18.54 

"      9 

75-56 

3 

1S.54 

Feb.   2 

79-49 

7 

19.26 

"    16 

76.67 

4 

18.72 

"     9 

81.16 

9 

19.62 

"    23 

71.17 

0 

18.00 

"    16 

81.45 

9 

19.62 

"    30 

71.16 

0 

18.00 

"    23 

82.75 

10 

19.80 

Dissatisfaction  caused  by  these  conditions  was  intensified 
when,  in  May,  1906,  voluntary  wage  advances  of  10  per  cent, 
were  made  by  certain  corporations  in  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  fine  goods. '^  Although 
the  employers  in  Fall  River  were  insistent  that  "  increases  in 
fine  goods  mills,  where  margins  of  profits  were  large,  should 
have  no  bearing  on  the   general  situation  in  Fall  River, "^  the 


1.  P'or  an  elaboration  of  this  point  see  Lincoln,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  456-459. 

2.  This  table  is  constructed  on  the  basis  of  the  table  presented  by  Mr.  Lincoln 
on  page  457of  his  article.  Computations  for  June,  1906  have  been  added;  also  weav- 
ing rates  for  the  entire  period. 

3.  Chronicle,  June  23,  1906,  pp.  1405,  1406. 

4.  Ibid.,  September  8,  1906,  p.  531. 


24  WAGES    IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 

Textile  Council,  voicing  the  feeling  of  the  operatives  with  regard 
to  the  sliding  scale,  strongly  urged  the  abandonment  of  the 
experiment  and  the  restoration  of  the  rates  of  wages  prevailing 
before  July,  1904.  This  request  was  made  on  June  8.  On  the 
sixteenth  of  the  same  month  the  Manufacturers'  Association 
made  a  counter  proposal,  offering  to  guarantee  a  wage  premium 
(on  the  basis  of  the  sliding  scale)  of  5  per  cent,  from  June  12 
to  October  i  "with  a  further  guarantee  that  if  the  margin  in  any 
one  week  exceeded  this  5  percent,  increase  they  would  pay  the 
additional  amount."^  When  this  plan  was  rejected  the  manu- 
facturers yielded,  promising  to  restore  the  rates  desired  {i.e., 
rates  based  on  a  weaving  rate  of  19.80  cents),  at  the  same  time 
protesting  that  the  margin  of  profit  warranted  no  such  advance 
and  claiming  that  the  advance  was  made  only  in  the  interest  of 
the  general  welfare  of  the  city.-  The  new  schedule  became 
effective  July  2,  1906. 

The  weaving  rate  of  19.80  cents  per  cut  thus  established 
remained  in  force  only  a  few  months.  A  widening  margin  of 
profit  and  a  demand  for  goods  so  large  that,  in  view  of  a 
reported  scarcity  of  labor,  it  could  not  be  satisfied,'^  soon  led 
to  renewed  demands  for  wage  advances.  This  time  the  request 
was  for  a  restoration  of  the  rates  prevailing  before  the  reduction 
of  1903.  After  some  parleying,  a  counter  proposal  by  the 
employers  of  a  compromise  of  5  per  cent,  increase  (with  the 
promise  of  5  per  cent,  more  in  February,  1907,  if  conditions 
should  be  favorable),"*  and  a  threat  of  strike  on  the  part  of  the 
employees,  the  manufacturers  yielded,  and  a  rate  of  21.78  cents 
was  announced  to  take  effect  November  26.  The  margin  at 
this  time  was  about  95  cents.'  And  it  was  a  part  of  the  settle- 
ment then   made   that  the   wage  determined   upon  should  be 

1.  Chronicle,  June  23,  1906,  p.  1406. 

2.  Ibid.,  p.  1448.  Following  the  action  of  the  Manufacturers'  Association,  the 
Fall  River  Iron  Works  increased  the  wages  of  its  operatives  10  per  cent.,  "  giving 
them  that  advantage  over  the  help  in  other  mills  of  the  city."  Chronicle,  September 
8,  1906,  page  531. 

3.  Ibid.,  January'  5,  1907,  p.  60.  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  article  (p.  459)  says  that 
the  prosperity  of  the  industrj-  at  this  time  was  "  greater  than  ever  before  known." 

4.  Chronicle,  November  24,  1 906,  p.  1 302. 

5.  Ibid.,  May  11,  1907,  p.  1129. 


RATES    OF   WACJES    AT    FALL    RIVER 


25 


effective  for  six  months,  at  the  end  of  which  period  there 
should  be  a  readjustment  with  reference  to  the  then  existing 
margin. 1 

Accordingly,  near  the  end  of  April,  1907,  discussion  of  the 
wage  problem  was  reopened.  The  margin  of  profit  was  found 
to  have  widened  quite  substantially,  and  the  advantages  which 
might  have  accrued  to  the  operatives  had  they  not  insisted  upon 
abandonment  of  the  sliding  scale  appeared  great.  The  demand 
of  the  operatives  was  for  a  10  per  cent,  advance.  This  the 
employers  were  disposed  to  refuse,  but  finally  the  advance  was 
granted  with  a  sliding  scale  agreement  attached. 

In  brief  the  provisions  of  this  agreement  were  as  follows  i^ 
Eighteen  cents  per  cut  was  established  as  the  minimum  weaving 
rate  for  28-inch  prints  at  a  base  margin  of  72.5  cents.  At  a 
margin  of  75  cents  the  weaving  rate  should  be  18.68  cents,  and 
above  the  margin  of  75  cents  rates  were  graded  in  accord  with 
the  margin  changes  indicated  in  the  following  tabulation  until  a 
maximum  margin  of  1 15  cents  was  reached  at  which  the 
maximum  weaving  rate  should  be  23.96  cents.  The  scale  of 
progression  was  slightly  steeper  than  that  provided  in  the 
agreement  of  1905. 

TABLE  IV 

Schedule  of  Margins  and  Weaving  Rates  Provided  by  the  Sliding 
Scale  Agreement  of  May  14,  1907 


Margins, 

Weaving  Rates. 

Margins. 

Weaving  Rates. 

(Cents) 

I'S 
no 

105 
95 

(Cents) 
23.96 
23-42 
22.87 
21.78 

(Cents) 

85 
80 

75 

72.5 

(Cents) 
20.69 
19.66 
18.68 
18.00 

Second,  the  agreement  provided  that  rates  of  wages  should 


1.  Ibid.,  .Septemlier  7,  1907,  p.  564. 

2.  The  full  text  of  this  agreement  is  presented  in  the  Appendix. 


26  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

change  only  once  in  six  months,  calculations  being  made  on 
the  last  Monday  of  May  and  November  of  each  year,  the  rate 
to  be  effective  in  each  six-month  period  being  determined  by 
the  average  margin  of  the  preceding  six  months.  And,  quoting 
from  section  2  of  the  agreement,  "  there  shall  be  no  change  in 
prices  on  either  the  ascending  or  descending  scale  unless  the 
margin  has  reached  a  point  indicated  in  the  .  .  .  -.  schedule." 

The  new  agreement  went  into  force  with  a  weaving  rate  of 
23.96  cents,  the  highest  rate  allowed  under  the  terms  of  the 
bargain,  and  also  the  highest  rate  which  had  up  to  that  time 
been  paid  in  the  Falls  River  mills.  But  the  extremely  high 
margins  of  1907  were  of  short  duration,  and  1908,  1909  and 
1 910  witnessed  successive  downward  movements.  Not  only 
was  this  true,  but,  in  1907,  difficulties  in  the  financial  world 
found  their  way  into  the  cotton  industry,  with  the  result  that 
curtailment  of  production  was  considered  and  well  under  way 
before  the  end  of  the  year.^  Corporations  supposed  to  be 
filling  large  orders  were  unable  to  secure  ready  money  for  use 
in  purchasing  materials  and  in  meeting  payroll  demands,  as 
jobbers  were  embarrassed  by  very  high  interest  rates  in  making 
payments  on  deliveries  of  goods. ^  Through  the  spring  of  1908 
curtailment  in  the  form  of  a  short  working  week  was  still 
general.'^  At  points  throughout  New  England  other  than  Fall 
River  reductions  in  wages  were  the  order  of  the  day.  But  at 
Fall  River  the  sliding  scale  agreement  for  a  time  saved  the 
operatives  from  this  form  of  hardship.  When,  near  the  end  of 
May,  calculations  of  margins  and  of  wages  were  made,  they 
showed  that  the  financial  distresses  had  been  accompanied  by  a 
marked  decline  of  the  margin  (which  in  April  and  May  had 
been  between  50  and  60  cents)  and  that,  in  accordance  with  the 
agreement,   the   weaving   rate   must  drop  from  23.96  cents  per 


1 .  For  interesting  information  regarding  the  method  adopted  by  the  mill  men 
throughout  New  England  to  secure  uniformity  of  curtailmeut  see  the  Chronicle  of 
November  16,  1907,  p.  1237;  November  23,  1907,  p.  1301;  December  28,  1907, 
p.  1653. 

2.  Chronicle,  November  23,  1907,  p.  1301. 

3.  Ibid.,  March  14,  1908,  p.  631;  March  28,  1908,  pp.  757,  758;  May  23, 
1908,  p.  1293;    May  30,   1908.  p.  1308. 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER 


27 


cut  to  19.66  cents  —  a  reduction  of  17.95  P^""  cent.  The  spirit 
in  which  this,  the  largest  single  reduction  of  wages  experienced 
by  Fall  River  workers  was  accepted,  deserves  only  the  highest 
commendation. •  The  operatives  as  a  whole  were  as  yet  un- 
willing to  declare  the  experiment  a  failure,  although  the  mule 
spinners  led  an  attempt  to  have  the  agreement  abandoned 
through  the  required  process  of  three  months'  notice.  Instead 
of  abandonment,  revision  was  resorted  to  in  September,  when 
the  scale  of  margins  and  wages  was  graduated  somewhat  more 
nicely,  the  intervals  between  the  margins  named  in  the  schedule 
being  made  uniform  at  two  and  one-half  cents  as  shown  in 
Table  V.  Another  slight  change  was  the  provision  for  a  delay 
of  two  weeks  in  the  enforcement  of  new  rates  of  wages  at  the 
end  of  each  six-month  period, ^ 


TABLE  V 

Schedule  of  Margins  and  Weaving  Rates  Provided  by  the  Revised 
Sliding  Scale  Agreement  of  September  8,  1908 


Margins. 

Weaving  Rates. 

Margins. 

Weaving  Rates. 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

(Cents) 

JI5 

23.96 

92.5 

21.50 

112. 5 

23.69 

90 

21.23 

no 

23.42 

87.5 

20.96 

107.5 

23->4 

85 

20.69 

105 

22.87 

82.5 

20. 1 S 

102.5 

22.59 

80 

19.66 

100 

22.32 

77-5 

19.17 

97-5 

22.05 

75 

18.68 

95 

21.78 

72.5 

18.00 

In  November,  1908,  calculation  of  the  margin  showed  another 
marked  decline,  according  to  which  the  rates  of  wages,  under 
the  automatic  operation  of  the  agreement,  were  to  be  expected 

1 .  Mr.  Lincoln  on  pages  465,  466,  of  his  article  gives  in  full  the  statement  issueil 
at  the  time  by  Mr.  James  Tansey,  then  president  of  the  Textile  Council.  See  also 
Massachusetts  Labor  Bulletin,  No.  60,  pp.  263-266. 

2.  The  whole  amended  agreement  is  found  on  pages  16-18  of  the  handbook  of 
the  Carders'  Union. 


28  WAGES    IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 

to  drop  to  the  minimum  of  i8  cents.  Instead,  the  manufacturers 
waived  their  rights  and  allowed  the  existing  rates  to  continue  in 
force.  The  situation  can  best  be  made  clear  by  quotation  from 
the  letter  of  the  Manufacturers'  Association  to  the  Textile 
Council  under  date  of  November  19,  1908.' 

Believing  that  indications  point  to  a  prosperous  season,  the 
Manufacturers'  Association  is  inclined  to  waive  for  the  present 
occasion  its  right  under  the  contract  to  reduce  wages  and  to 
suggest,  if  it  be  agreeable  to  the  Textile  Council,  that  the 
present  rate  of  wages  be  maintained  for  the  ensuing  period  of 
six  months,  it  being  thoroughly  understood  that  the  extra 
wage  thus  paid  is  something  over  and  above  what  is  required 
by  the  contract,  which  still  remains  binding  on  both  parties 
and  is  offered  as  in  some  way  a  substantial  recognition  of  the 
good  faith  of  the  operatives  in  remaining  true  to  their  con- 
tractual obligations. 

If,  therefore,  the  members  of  the  Textile  Council  approve 
this  suggestion,  and  thus  indicate  their  understanding  that  no 
precedent  is  hereby  established  and  that  the  textile  agreement 
still  remains  in  full  force,  the  arrangement  outlined  above  will 
become  effective. 

The  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle  gives  an  additional 
suggestion  of  what  the  conditions  were  which  made  this  action 
of  the  manufacturers  possible."^ 

It  is  explained  [by  the  manufacturers]  that  supplies  of 
cotton  were  secured  much  below  recent  quotations  ;  had  the 
manufacturers  been  forced  to  buy  raw  materials  and  sell  pro- 
ducts at  current  quotations,  the  waiving  of  the  rights  would 
not  have  been  possible. 

As  is  shown  in   Table   VI,  the   succeeding  periods   of  wage 


1.  Handbook  of  the  Carders' Union,  p.  19.  See  also  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Statistics,  Annual  Report,  1909,  pp.  44-47;  Textile  World  Record,  Vol.  XXXVI,  pp. 
314,  315.  The  Textile  World  Record  said  with  reference  to  the  action  of  the  manu- 
facturers: "They  do  this  undoubtedly  because  they  believe  that  insisting  on  the 
reduction  would  be  an  injustice.  This  is  the  practical  recognition  of  the  important  fact 
that  the  wages  of  textile  mill  operatives  are  below  the  American  wage  standard." 
(Vol.  XXXVI,  p.  315.) 

2.  Chronicle,  December  11,  1909,  p.  1509. 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    lALL    RIVER 


29 


calculation  witnessed  repetitions  of  the  employers'  action  of 
November,  1908.  In  1^'cbruary,  1910,  the  operatives,  keenly  dis- 
appointed at  the  failure  of  wages  to  slide  upward,  voted  to 
withdraw  from  the  agreement.  This  gave  rise  to  fresh  discussion 
of  future  rates  of  wages,  and  tentative  plans  were  taken  up. 
The  proposal  of  the  employees  was  that  of  a  sliding  scale  in 
which  19.66  cents  per  cut,  the  rate  then  being  paid,  should  be 
the  minimum  rate,  this  to  be  paid  at  a  margin  of  67.5  cents  or 
lower.  The  maximum  rate  proposed  was  26.03  cents  at  a  margin 
of  1 1  5  cents.  Such  a  scale,  if  adopted,  would  have  meant  an 
advance  all  along  the  line  of  between  8  and  10  per  cent.  The 
manufacturers  would  not  agree  to  such  a  marked  change,  being 
willing  to  make  only  a  smaller  advance  on  the  sliding  scale  basis. 
Consequently  the  sliding  scale  experiment  was  abandoned.^ 


TABLE  VI 

Actual  Margins  and  Wages  under  the  Sliding  Scale  Agreement  of 
May  14,  1907 

(Revised  September  8,  1908) 


Dates  of 

Average  margins  for 
the  preceding  six- 
month  periods. 

Weaving  rates  for  the  the  succeeding 
six-month  periods. 

wa(;e  changes. 

Rates  called  for  by 
the  agreement. 

Rates  actually  in 
force. 

May  27,  1907 
Nov.  25,  1907 
May  26,  1908 
Nov.  26,  1908 
May  28,  1909 
Nov.  29,  1909 
May  30,  1910 

(Cents) 
115.60  2 
130.89 
79.00 
60.82 
74.01 
66.90 
66.15 

(Cents) 
23.96 
23.96 
19.66 
18.00 
18.00 
18.00 
18.00 

(Cents) 
23.96 
23.96 
19.66 
19.66 
19.66 
19.66 
Agreement  abandoned 

1.  Chronicle,  September  lo,  1910,  p.  622. 

2.  The  margin  of  profit  upon  which  the  weaving  rate  for  the  six  months  following 
May  27,  1907,  was  based  was  the  average  margin  for  a  period  slightly  shorter  than  six 
months,  ending  Ajiril  30,  1907  (Chronicle,  May  11,  1907,  \i.  1129I.  The  other 
s<iurces  of  the  materials  tabulated  above  are  as  follows:  Lincoln,  loc.  cit.,  p.  463; 
Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics,  Annual  Report,  1909,  pp.  44-47;  Massachusetts 
Labor  Bulletin,   No.    56,  p.   4;    No.   60,   pp.    263-266;    Textile  World  Record,  Vol. 

xxxvL  pp.  204, 205, 314, 315;  Vol.  xxxvn,  pp.  329, 330;  voi.  xxxvin,  pp. 

363,  365:  Vol.  XXXIX,  pp.  552,  553. 


30 


WAGES    IN    COTTON   MANUFACTURES 


The  first  j::jeneral  criticism  of  the  sliding  scale  experiment  is 
that  it  did  not  rest  upon  an  adequate  foundation  of  experience. 
Analysis  of  the  material  presented  in  Table  I  and  Chart  I  shows  : 
(i)  that  in  the  long  period  preceding  1905  changes  of  rates  of 
wages  had  no  consistent  relationship  to  changes  in  the  margin 
of  profit;  (2)  that  there  was  more  accurate  adjustment  of  rates 
of  wages  to  upward  movements  of  the  margin  than  to  downward 
movements  ;  and  (3 )  that  the  most  important  reductions  of  wages 
were  contemporaneous  with  business  disorders  not  limited  to 
the  cotton  manufacturing  industry. 

In  order  to  secure  a  more  definite  expression  of  whatever 
relationship  may  have  existed  between  changes  of  wages  and 
of  market  conditions  in  this  industry,  Pearson's  formula  for  the 
coeflficient  of  correlation  has  been  applied  to  the  data  of  Table  I 
(columns  6  and  11)  for  the  period  1881-1904  inclusive  in  the 
manner  and  with  the  results  indicated  in  Table  VII. 


TABLE  VII 
The  Correlation  of  Wages  and  Prices  at  Fall  River,  1 881-1904 


Subject. 

Relative. 

Allowance 
for  lag. 

Coefficient. 

Probable 
error. 

1 .  Weaving  rate 

2.  Weaving  rate 

3.  Weaving  rate 

4.  Weaving  rate 

5.  Weaving  rate 

6.  Weaving  rate 

Margin  of  profit 
Margin  of  profit 
Cloth  prices  ' 
Cloth  prices  ' 
Raw  cotton  prices  » 
Raw  cotton  prices  2 

None 
One  year 
None 
One  year 
None 
One  year 

+  .0964 
+  .2297 

+  -4315 
+  .3506 
+  .5648 
+  .3306 

+  -1355 
+  .1295 
+  .1114 
+  .1200 
±  -0932 
+  .1218 

From  Table  VII  it  appears  that  the  correlation  between  the 
weaving  rate  and  the  margin  was  smaller  than  that  between  the 
weaving  rate  and  either  cotton  or  cloth  prices.  This  is  true 
even  when  allowance  is  made  for  a  lag  of  one  year  in  the  adjust- 
ment of  wages  to  changing  commodity  market  conditions. 
Rather  singularly  it  appears  that  the   coefificient  of   correlation 


1.  Averages  of  the  prices  of  28-inch  and  38>2-inch  prints. 

2.  Average  annual  prices  of  middling  upland  cotton. 


RATES   OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER  31 

between  weaving  rates  and  raw  cotton  prices  of  the  same  year 
is  the  only  coefficient  of  the  six  greater  than  -|--5  (and  if  from 
this  coefficient  the  probable  error  be  subtracted  the  coefficient 
falls  below  the  -I-.5  mark)  ;  singularly,  because,  if  one  assumes 
a  direct  causal  relationship  between  margins  and  wages,  one 
would  expect  that  the  increase  of  cotton  prices  would  tend  to 
lower  wages,  not  to  raise  them. 

Whatever  be  the  explanation  of  the  relative  values  of  these 
coefficients,  we  must  conclude  that  the  sliding  scale  agreements 
were  founded  upon  no  adequate  basis  of  experience ;  that  they 
cannot  be  regarded  as  providing  a  mechanism  to  secure  without 
friction  the  results  of  the  operation  of  the  competitive  forces 
through  which  wages  in  this  industry  had  previously  been 
adjusted. 

Second,  the  most  elaborate  and  nicely  adjusted  system  of 
determination  of  rates  of  wages  offers  no  guarantee  against  un- 
employment;  and  we  have  seen  that  the  Fall  River  operatives, 
in  their  brief  experience  with  the  sliding  scale,  found  that  cur- 
tailment of  production  by  means  of  short-time  operation  was 
still  an  unsolved  problem. 

Under  unsatisfactory  conditions  of  manufacture  the  employer 
has  two  means  of  securing  relief  so  far  as  his  relations  with  his 
employees  are  concerned  ;  namely,  the  reduction  of  rates  of 
wages,  and  partial  or  complete  stoppage  of  production.  It  is 
evident  that  the  method  of  a  horizontal  reduction  of  wages, 
particularly  of  piece  rates,  presents  to  the  manufacturer  the 
most  direct  way  of  reducing  costs  per  unit  of  product.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  successfulness  of  an  attempt  to  lower  rates  of 
wages  when  the  margin  is  small  and  when,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  manufacturer,  a  direct  lowering  of  the  cost  per  unit  seems 
most  to  be  desired  may  be  limited,  even  though  indefinitely,  by 
the  approach  of  real  earnings  to  the  minimum  of  the  workers' 
standards  of  living.  As  to  the  conditions  of  trade,  these  may 
be  such  that  the  method  of  rate  cutting  tends  to  defeat  its  own 
purpose.  Rate  cutting,  by  decreasing  costs,  tends  to  encourage 
large  production.  At  a  time  of  over-production,  when  the  mills 
have  on  hand   large  stocks  of  goods   unsalable  except  at  low 


32  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

prices,  the  obvious  remedy  is  not  further  manufacture  but  short- 
time  operation  or  dismissal  of  part  of  the  operative  force.  For 
a  low  cost  of  production  in  the  immediate  future  cannot  remedy 
the  hardships  resulting  from  high  cost  of  goods  held  in  store- 
houses and  not  marketable  at  a  profit.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
partial  suspension  of  work  has  the  advantage  of  actually  cur- 
tailing output  and  also  of  being  able  to  be  effected  with  less 
open  opposition  on  the  part  of  employees. 

Systematic  and  combined  curtailment  of  output,  although 
difficult  of  successful  enforcement,  has  been  sufificiently  preva- 
lent in  the  New  England  cotton  manufacturing  industry  to  have 
an  important  bearing  upon  the  soundness  of  the  sliding  scale 
plan.  It  is  of  considerable  importance  that  this  curtailment 
and  the  unemployment  resulting  therefrom  have  occurred  with 
no  appreciable  seasonal  regularity.  While  it  is  true  that  the 
months  of  July,  August  and  September  (when  mill  stocks  are 
approaching  exhaustion  and  managers  are  waiting  for  the  mar- 
keting of  the  new  crop  of  cotton)  are  the  months  which  most 
frequently  show  unemployment  in  excess  of  the  average  for  the 
year,  it  is  true  that  this  seasonal  swing  is  very  slight.  Unem- 
ployment that  occurs  irregularly  offers  greater  difficulties  to  be 
overcome  in  wage  agreements  than  that  which  is  regularly 
recurring. 

It  appears  from  examination  of  the  materials  relating  to  the 
history  of  unemployment  in  the  Massachusetts  cotton  manufac- 
turing industry,  presented  elsewhere  in  this  monograph, ^  that 
in  the  period  of  thirty-one  years  from  1886  to  1916  inclusive 
there  were  10  years  ( 1886,  1888,  1893,  1894,  1896,  1897,  1898, 
1903,  1904  and  1908)  in  which  the  number  of  cotton  textile 
operatives  reported  to  have  been  unemployed  at  some  time 
during  the  year  constituted  at  least  10  per  cent,  of  the  average 
number  of  employees  for  the  year.  Of  these  ten  years,  two 
(1886  and  1888)  were  years  in  which  this  unemployment 
existed  while  wage  advances  were  being  made  at  Fall  River. 
In  two  other  of  these  ten  years  (1896  and  1897)  rates  of  wages 
at  Fall  River  were   unchangad.     While   in  the  remaining   six 

I.     Chapter  V. 


RATES   OF   WAGES    AT   FALL    RIVER  33 

years  (1893,  1894,  1898,  1903,  1904,  and  1908)  unemployment 
existed  in  the  face  of  very  substantial  wage  reductions.  In 
other  words,  in  these  six  years  wage  reductions  were  supple- 
mented either  by  part-time  operation  or  by  temporary  dismissal 
of  a  part  of  the  operative  force.  With  the  particular  form  of 
curtailment  we  are  not  here  concerned  except  to  note  that  at 
Fall  River  the  tendency  has  been  for  the  manufacturers  to  act 
collectively,  to  run  on  part  time,  and  thus  to  retain  the  advan- 
tages of  the  existing  factory  organizations  of  the  operative 
force. 

In  an  industry  in  which  such  conditions  as  these  prevail  it 
cannot  be  ignored  that  a  sliding  scale  plan  may  be  ever  so  finely 
elaborated  solely  with  reference  to  rates  of  wages  and  still  offer 
no  guarantee  that  the  wages  thus  determined  shall  actually  be 
paid  ;  for  the  sliding  scale  does  not  assure  employment.  It 
merely  provides  that  if  there  is  employment  to  be  had,  com- 
pensation shall  be  on  a  prearranged  plan.  If,  however,  the 
sliding  scale  system  does  sometimes  tend  to  reduce  unemploy- 
ment by  bringing  about  almost  frictionless  reduction  of  wages, 
then  it  devolves  upon  the  laborer  to  weigh  for  himself  the  alter- 
natives of  steady  work  at  low  pay  or  more  fluctuating  employ- 
ment at  a  higher  rate  of  compensation  per  piece  or  per  hour. 

Third,  the  so-called  margin  of  profit  is  not  adequate  to  indi- 
cate the  wage-paying  ability  of  an  industry,  assuming  that  the 
true  unit  margin  of  profit  can  be  ascertained  and  that  no  diffi- 
culty exists  to  hinder  or  prevent  the  collection  and  utilization 
of  price  information  in  computing  this  margin. 

The  philosophy  of  the  sliding  scale  appears  to  be  this:  that 
it  will  eliminate  from  industry  the  friction  of  industrial  warfare 
and  its  consequent  social  waste,  at  the  same  time  giving  reason- 
able assurance  that  the  individuals  and  corporations  concerned 
shall  lose  nothing  which  the  operation  of  competitive  forces 
would  secure  for  them.  In  a  sense  the  sliding  scale  is  a  pros- 
perity-sharing plan.  Now  it  is  quite  obvious  that  the  prosperity 
of  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  is  not  a  thing  to  be  meas- 
ured by  the  manufacturer's  gross  margin  of  profit.  This 
method   of  prosperity  measurement    takes   no  account   of  the 


34  WAGES    IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

changing  vohinic  of  trade  under  changing  margin  conditions. 
It  is  entirely  conceivable  that  the  textile  mills  of  New  England 
may  secure  larger  sums  of  money  available  for  dividends  under 
conditions  of  narrow  margins  and  large  sales  than  under  con- 
ditions of  wide  margins  and  small  sales. 

To  these  considerations  bearing  upon  the  inadequacy  of  the 
margin  as  a  basis  of  wage  calculation  add  another  —  that  the 
margin  as  calculated  at  Fall  River  was  a  crude  one,  which  ignored 
entirely  not  only  the  volume  of  trade  but  also  the  existence  of 
heavy  fixed  charges  upon  the  business. 

As  concrete  evidence  of  the  inadequacy  of  the  margin  basis 
of  wage  adjustment  witness  the  failure  of  the  Fall  River  manu- 
facturers to  insist  upon  rigid  adherence  to  the  terms  of  the 
agreement  of  1907,  when,  in  1908,  "believing  that  indications 
point[ed]  to  a  prosperous  season"  they  made  slight  recognition 
of  existing  low  margins.  That  the  mill  owners,  through  their 
representatives,  were  scrupulously  insistent  that  their  considerate 
action  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  precedent  is  beside  the  point. 
A  schedule  of  margins  and  rates  of  wages  had  been  agreed  upon, 
and  within  eighteen  months  the  schedule  was  found  to  be  not  at 
all  indicative  of  wage-paying  ability. 

Fourth,  it  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  practicable  to  find  the  real 

margin   of   profit.     The    sliding    scale    agreements    are    to    be 

criticised  on  the  ground  that  in  the  calculation  of  the  margin  of 

profit  only  two  grades  of  cloth  were  considered.     Although   at 

Fall  River  there  is  a  greater  degree  of  homogeneity  of  the  cloth 

products  of  the  mills  than  is  found  in  many  of  the  New  England 

textile  centres,  it  is  true  that  here  at  any  one  time  thousands  of 

employees  are  engaged   in  the  production  of  cloths  other  than 

the    28-inch    and    383^-inch    prints.     If    the    wages    of  these 

operatives  are  to  slide  in  accordance  with  changing  margins  of 

profit,  it  would  seem  no  more  than   reasonable  to  expect  that 

the  margin  be  calculated  with  reference  to  more  than  two  kinds 

of  cloth.     For  there  can  be  no  assurance  that  the  prices  of  these 

two  cloths  are   indicative    of  the   cloth   market  so  far  as  these 

particular  mills  are  concerned.^ 

I .  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  28-inch  64  x  64  prints  are  no  longer  regarded 
as  the  most  typical  mill  products.  The  best  statistical  tabulations  of  cloth  prices  now 
give  instead  quotations  on  27-inch  64  x  60  prints. 


RATES    OF   WAf;ES    AT    FALL    fvIVER  35 

A  similar  criticism  might  be  made  of  the  use  of  <iuotations  on 
middling  upland  cotton  alone.  But  this  criticism  is  of  minor 
importance,  for  there  is  reason  to  think  that  the  prices  of  the 
several  grades  of  cotton  other  than  the  middling  upland  bear  a 
more  constant  relation  to  those  of  the  latter  grade  than  do  the 
prices  of  all  the  different  cotton  fabrics  to  those  of  regular  and 
standard  prints.  However  this  may  be,  we  are  concerned  with 
cotton  prices  more  with  respect  to  the  extent  to  which  these 
quotations  are  indicative  of  mill  costs,  assuming  the  logically 
most  simple  possible  condition,  namely,  that  only  middling 
cotton  is  used  by  the  mills  —  a  condition  which  is,  of  course, 
contrary  to  fact. 

This  is  a  matter  which  has  to  do  with  the  times  of  margin 
calculation  and  wage  adjustment  under  a  sliding  scale.  The 
evil  result  of  weekly  calculations  has  already  been  indicated  in 
the  narrative  of  events  of  the  first  experiment  in  1 905-1 906. 
No  doubt  the  six-month  basis  was  an  improvement.  But  there 
is  a  difficulty  present  no  matter  upon  what  intervals  agreement 
is  reached.  There  is  not  much  object  in  averaging  raw  cotton 
prices  for  a  week  or  even  for  six  months  with  a  view  to 
determining  wages  unless  it  is  known  that  the  cotton  used  in 
production  was  actually  bought  at  the  prices  averaged.  Exami- 
nation of  commercial  statistics  shows  that  by  far  the  heaviest 
buying  of  cotton  stocks  by  mills  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
United  States  and  in  Canada  is  in  the  months  of  October, 
November,  December,  and  January  of  each  year.  In  the  five 
years  of  the  sliding  scale  experiments  an  average  of  over  57 
percent,  of  the  takings  by  these  mills  was  in  these  four  months.' 
The  lowest  percentage  of  these  takings  in  these  four  months  (45  ) 
was  in  the  season  1907-1908,  and  the  highest  (66)  in  the  season 
1909-1910.  It  is  evident  that  any  system  of  basing  wages  on 
margins  averaged  for  six-month  periods  ending  in  May  and 
November  does  not  fairly  allow  for  the  uneven  distribution  of 
cotton  purchases  throughout  the  year.     And  yet  an  adju.stment 


t.     This  computation  is  from  Shepperson's    Cotton   l-a.ts,    edition  of    l>cconil)cr, 
1907,  p.  26;  ciiition  of  December,  1910,  p.  26. 


36  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

of  the  dates  of  margin  and  wage  calculations  to  meet  this  seasonal 
fluctuation  is  not  easy  for  the  fluctuation  is  not  regular. 

To  make  a  more  positive  statement  of  this  criticism  —  the 
calculation  of  margins,  if  made  at  all,  should  be  made  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  prices  at  which  the  mills  concerned  have 
actually  bought  supplies  of  cotton,  and  with  a  knowledge  ako 
of  the  prices  actually  received  from  time  to  time  for  the  mill 
products.  Only  in  this  way  can  the  real  margin  be  ascertained. 
Probably  this  criticism  is  destructive  rather  than  constructive. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  it  would  be  feasible  to  make  a  sliding 
scale  agreement  which  would  reveal  not  only  to  employees  but 
also  to  competing  enterprisers  the  marketing  policies  of  each 
corporation.^  The  probable  result  of  such  an  attempt  to 
eliminate  labor  disputes  would  be  the  bargaining  of  each  mill 
with  its  own  employees  and  the  elimination  of  collective  bar- 
gaining on  a  large  scale.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  mill 
owners  would  resort  to  pure  profit-sharing  devices  rather  than 
to  accept  a  system  which  would  disclose  methods  by  which 
profits  are  secured. 

Fifth,  this  experiment  was  based  upon  the  ungrounded  assump- 
tion that  wages  in  any  one  industry  can  be  determined  by  rules 
which  relate  only  to  the  internal  affairs  of  that  industry. 

The  ability  of  cotton  textile  operatives  to  secure  an  advance 
or  to  resist  a  reduction  of  wages  cannot  be  measured  solely  by 
market  conditions  within  the  industry.  Margins  of  profit  have 
to  do  with  the  demand  for  labor  ;  but  the  prosperity  of  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industry,  however  indicated,  does  not  constitute 
the  sole  demand  for  the  services  of  cotton  mill  operatives.  Of 
this  witness  the  attraction  of  mill  workers  into  munitions  factories. 
Also  margins  of  profit  are  not  directly  related  to  the  supply  of 
labor,  which  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  fixed  or  even  steadily 
growing  quantity,  but  which  varies  with  population  changes, 
both  quantitative  and  qualitative.  That  labor  supply  tends  to 
conform  to  labor  demand  is  a  mere  truism,  which  means  that 


I.  See  the  statement  of  Mr.  Edward  Stanwood,  secretary  of  the  Arkwright  Chib 
of  Boston,  in  a  review  of  Professor  Copeland's  book  in  the  American  Economic  Re\4ew, 
vol.  Ill  (June,  1913),  p.  372. 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER  37 

the  number  of  goods  or  services  sold  must  be  equal  respectively 
to  the  number  of  goods  or  services  bought.  It  must  be  evident 
that  any  formal  agreement,  however  elaborately  drawn,  if  based 
upon  intra-industrial  conditions  only,  cannot  be  expected  to 
guarantee  to  either  workers  or  employers  all  that  could  be 
secured  by  hard  bargaining  under  competitive  conditions.  That 
is,  at  comparatively  frequent  intervals  the  whole  sliding  schedule 
would  have  to  be  considered  anew.  Ipso  facto  the  scale  would 
not  slide ;  it  would  become  a  new  scale. 

This  brings  us  to  a  final  critical  comment  upon  the  sliding 
scale  plan :  That  the  detailed  construction  of  a  schedule  of 
margins  and  wages,  in  the  last  analysis,  is  a  matter  of  the  com- 
parative bargaining  powers  of  employers  and  employees. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  sliding  scale  experiment  was  abandoned 
in  1910;  first,  because  the  employees  were  dissatisfied  with  the 
failure  of  rates  to  slide  upward,  and,  second,  because  they  were 
unable,  in  considering  the  extension  of  the  agreement,  to  raise 
the  whole  scale  of  rates  to  a  level  satisfactory  to  themselves. 
In  spite  of  the  fundamental  unsoundness  of  the  whole  scheme, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  it  would  have  been  continued  beyond 
the  spring  of  191  o,  if  both  sides  had  been  able  to  agree  upon  a 
new  schedule. 

The  difficulty  appears  to  be  that  there  is  no  criterion  by  which 
the  economic  correctness  of  any  proposed  schedule  maj'  be 
judged.  What  would  be  an  economically  correct  schedule? 
Presumably  such  would  be  a  schedule  which  would  accord  to 
either  party  all  that  could  be  secured  by  the  most  vigorous  and 
keen  bargaining.  Or,  to  put  the  question  in  another  form,  what 
is  the  criterion  of  the  wage-pa\'ing  ability  of  an  industr)-?  We 
do  not  know.  The  answer  is  still  in  process  of  being  evolved 
in  the  cases  of  public  and  quasi-public  utilities.  Governor 
Douglas,  in  1905,  when  arbitrating  the  wage  dispute  at  Fall 
River,  made  certain  allowances  for  dividends  and  fordepreciation. 
But  other  authorities  might  make  different  allowances  for  the 
same  items.  This  is  a  difficult  problem,  especially  in  the  case 
of  the  Fall  River  cotton  mills,  regarding  wiiose  capitalization 
comparatively  little  is  publicly  known. ^ 
I.     Cf.  Copeland,  op.  cit.,  ch.  15. 


38  WAGES    IN    COTTON   MANUFACTURES 

The  answer  to  the  last  two  criticisms  (that  adjustments  of  any 
sUding  schedule  must  be  made  periodically  to  meet  changing 
industrial  conditions  and  that  there  is  as  yet  no  criterion  by 
which  the  sliding  schedule  may  be  made  accurately  to  reflect 
the  state  of  the  competitive  markets  for  labor)  may  be  of  this 
nature:  That  great  nicety  of  adjustment  is  not  to  be  expected 
in  such  a  schedule;  that  some  gain  will  be  effected  if  only  the 
wastes  of  industrial  conflict  can  be  avoided  ;  and  that  "in  the 
long  run"  one  side  will  gain  through  this  inaccuracy  of  adjust- 
ment as  much  as  the  other.  Of  this  last  contention,  however, 
there  is  no  certain  proof.  While  it  might  be  safe  to  rely  upon 
this  supposed  tendency  to  equalize  advantages  and  disadvantages 
thus  arising,  if  the  sliding  scale  scheme  were  fundamentally 
sound,  we  have  seen  that  in  the  Fall  River  case,  at  least,  this 
soundness  did  not  exist. 

From  May  26,  1908,  the  last  date  in  the  sliding  scale  period 
on  which  the  piece  rates  actually  changed,  until  March  25, 
1912,  the  weaving  piece  rate  remained  19.66  cents.  On  the 
latter  date,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  textile  strike  at  Lawrence 
arising  out  of  the  legislation  reducing  the  length  of  the  working 
day  for  women  and  children,  the  weaving  rate  became  21.62 
cents  per  cut,  involving  an  advance  of  10  percent.  Then  there 
followed  a  period  of  nearly  four  years  with  no  change  in  piece 
rates,  culminating  January  24,  1916,  when  under  the  combined 
operation  of  war  demands  on  the  cotton  industry  itself  and  of 
demand  for  workers  in  munitions  factories  the  textile  operatives 
of  Fall  River,  as  well  as  those  of  all  New  England,  entered 
upon  a  period  of  frequent  and  considerable  wage  advances. 

The  weaving  rate  determined  upon  January  24,  1916  was 
22.71  cents,  involving  an  advance  of  5  per  cent.  On  May  i  of 
the  same  year  another  advance  of  10  per  cent,  brought  the  rate 
to  24.98  cents.  On  December  4,  1916,  the  rate  was  again 
advanced  10  per  cent,  to  27.48  cents.  Thus  in  1916  alone 
after  a  long  period  of  stable  rates  the  Fall  River  operatives 
received  advances  which  brought  the  rates  at  the  end  of  1916 
to  a  level  over  39  per  cent,  above  those  prevailing  in  1908 
under  the  sliding  scale  agreement,  and  27  per  cent,  above  those 
effective  in  March,  1912. 


RATES    OF   WAGES    AT    FALL    RIVER  39 

At  the  time  of  the  advance  of  wages  effective  December  4, 
1916,  it  was  agreed  that  there  should  be  no  change  for  six  months 
thereafter.'  On  May  4,  191 7,  the  Textile  Council  notified 
the  manufacturers  that  another  advance  of  10  per  cent,  was 
expected  effective  June  4  for  the  succeeding  six  months.-  In 
the  meantime  the  United  States  had  become  a  participant  in 
the  world  war,  heavy  demands  had  been  and  were  being  made 
upon  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  for  army  and  navy 
supplies,  the  already  prevailing  scarcity  of  textile  operatives 
caused  by  the  drain  to  the  munitions  factories  had  been  increased 
by  voluntary  enlistments  for  military  service,  and  the  operation 
of  the  machinery  for  the  enforcement  of  the  selectixe  draft  act 
held  out  the  prospect  of  an  even  greater  dearth  of  labor.  Mills 
could  ill  afford  stoppage  of  production,  even  if  such  stoppage 
had  been  permitted  by  the  government.  Consequently  the 
advance  requested  was  granted  without  delay,  the  new  weaving 
rate  being  30.23  cents. 

In  October,  191 7,  under  the  continued  stimulus  of  war  con- 
ditions the  Textile  Council  at  Fall  River  again  requested  an 
advance  of  wages,  this  time  of  15  percent.  The  manufacturers 
countered  with  an  offer  of  10  per  cent,  which  was  not  accepted. 
Finally  a  compromise  was  effected  at  an  advance  of  I2^j  per 
cent,  subject  to  the  approval  of  a  representative  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Labor.  The  new  weaving  rate,  34.02 
cents,  became  effective  December  3,  and  finally  was  approved 
in  February,  19 18.  The  Government  representati\e  urged  that 
the  rate  be  continued  until  the  end  of  the  customary  six-month 
period,  about  June  i.'' 

With  the  approach  of  the  latter  date  the  operatives  asked  for 
an  advance  of  25  per  cent.,  but  compromised  at  15  per  cent., 
bringing  the  weaving  rate  to  39.12  cents,  effective  June  3.'* 

Thus  up  to  the  end  of  the  first  half  of  1918  advances  of 
wages  were  secured  at  Fall  River  aggregating  an  increase  over 


1.  Chronicle,  November  iS,  191O,  p.  iSiS;   August  25,  1917,  i».  jSj. 

2.  Chronicle,  August  25,  1917,  p.  7S2. 

3.  Ibid.,  August  31,  191 8,  p.  869. 

4.  Idem. 


40  WAGES   IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

the  rates  fixed  May  26,  1908,  of  98.98  percent,  and  an  increase 
over  the  immediately  pre-war  wages  fixed  March  25,  1912,  of 
89.01  per  cent.  Since  the  entrance  of  the  United  States  into 
the  war  the  gains  in  wages  have  aggregated  42.35  per  cent,  of 
the  rates  effective  December  4,  191C. 

Conditions  in  the  industry  from  June  until  the  first  of 
November,  191 8,  were  such  as  to  give  rise  to  serious  expecta- 
tion of  further  advances  on  December  first.  Unprecedented 
prosperity,  in  spite  of  governmental  price  control  since  the  early 
summer,  existed  contemporaneously  with  an  ever  increasing 
shortage  of  labor  caused  not  only  by  the  extension  of  the  draft 
law  but  also  by  the  epidemic  of  influenza.  But  with  the  signing 
of  the  armistice  there  came  an  abrupt  change  in  the  form  of 
stoppage  of  production.  The  Fall  River  Textile  Council  late 
in  November  presented  a  request  for  another  advance  of  rates. 
Refusal  by  the  employers  was  prompt  and  firm,  and  was  acceded 
to  with  little  delay  by  the  operatives.  From  that  time  until  the 
completion  ofthis  monograph  in  May,  1919,  operation  continued 
on  the  basis  of  the  39.12  cents  weaving  rate,  modification  of 
working  conditions  caused  by  the  new  market  conditions  taking 
the  form  chiefly  of  the  forty-eight  hour  week. 


FULL   TLME   EARNINGS,    1860-189I  41 


CHAPTER    III 

The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the    Massa- 
chusetts Cotton  Manufacturing   Industry,    i 860-1 891 

The  statistical  materials  assembled  and  analyzed  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter  relate  directly  to  rates  of  wages.  Next,  logically, 
come  earnings,  that  is,  the  sums  of  money  actually  received  by 
operatives  per  day  or  per  week  ;  and  since  this  study  is  primarily 
historical,  relative  earnings  or  "index  numbers"  of  earnings  will 
first  claim  our  attention.  Furthermore,  we  are  here  concerned 
with  full  time  earnings.  Unemployment  and  its  effects  upon 
pay  envelopes  in  different  years  constitute  a  topic  for  separate 
consideration,  reserved  for  Chapter  V.  In  the  present  chapter 
and  the  one  immediately  succeeding,  the  assumption  is  made 
that  the  quotations  of  daily  and  weekly  earnings  selected  from 
the  available  statistical  raw  materials  were  originall}'  compiled 
as  being  typical  of  conditions  prevailing  in  the  years  or  other 
periods  in  question.  Hence  the  significance  of  "full  time  earn- 
ings" in  the  titles  of  Chapters  III  and  IV. 

For  the  study  of  relative  full  time  earnings  of  employees  in 
the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  of  New  England  since  i860, 
the  chief  sources  of  statistical  information  are  such  as  to  make 
advisable  a  three-fold  division  of  the  period.  For  the  years 
1 860-1 880  there  exist  two  comprehensive  bodies  of  statistical 
raw  materials — the  so-called  Weeks  Report  in  Volume  XX  of  the 
reports  of  the  Tenth  Census,  and  the  well  known  Aldrich  Report 
of  1893.'  These  sources  have  been  ably  examined  by  Professor 
Wesley  C.  Mitchell  in  his  Gold,  Prices,  a>td  Wai:;cs  under  the 
Greenback  Sta)idard.  From  the  results  of  his  study  of  general 
wage  movements  there  have  been  selected  for  presentation  here 
the   facts   of   importance   relating  to  the  cotton   mills  of  New 

I.     Senate  Committee  on  Finance,  Report  on  WhoUsaU  Prices,  on    Wages,  and 
on  Transportation.     Senate  Reports,  52(1  Congress,  2d  Session.     Report  1394,  pts.  i -4. 


42  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

England.  These  facts,  supplemented  by  explanatory  material, 
serve  here  as  the  foundation  for  the  earnings  statistics  covering 
later  years. 

For  the  years  1 880-1 891  the  most  nearly  complete  and  satis- 
factorily comparable  earnings  statistics  are  found  in  the  volumes 
of  the  Aldrich  Report.  These  materials  have  not  heretofore 
been  examined  for  the  purposes  of  such  a  study  as  the  present 
one,  and  it  has  been  the  task  of  the  present  writer  to  apply  to 
certain  of  these  series  of  wage  quotations  statistical  methods 
calculated  to  secure  continuations  of  the  curves  of  relative  full 
time  earnings  constructed  by  Professor  Mitchell  for  the  years 
1860-1880. 

Third,  for  the  period  since  1890  there  are  available  in  the 
Reports  and  Bulletins  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  and 
of  its  successor  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
materials  for  the  construction  of  nearly  complete  series  of  full 
time  earnings  for  five  occupational  groups  of  cotton  textile 
employees.  These  series  have  been  modified  somewhat  for 
purposes  of  comparative  analysis,  with  special  reference  to  the 
effects  upon  earnings   of  legislation  reducing  the  hours  of  labor. 

The  present  chapter  contains  an  analytical  and  explanatory 
discussion  of  the  first  two  periods  described,  i860— 1880  and 
1880— 1 891.  The  next  succeeding  chapter  covers  the  period 
1890-1916. 

The  exhibits  of  the  Aldrich  Report  include  wage  data  for  five 
establishments  manufacturing  cotton  cloth,  of  which  four  were 
in  Massachusetts.  From  the  original  exhibits  for  these  four 
mills  Professor  Mitchell  constructed  135  occupational  series  of 
relative  earnings  for  the  years  1 860-1 880,  using  as  a  base  (100) 
for  each  series  the  actual  wage  reported  to  have  been  paid  in 
January,  1860.^  These  series  represented  all  of  the  occupations 
reported  for  the  mills  in  question,  including  several  "non-textile" 
or  "  non-operative "  groups  of  workers,  such  as  overseers, 
mechanics,  yard  hands,  sweepers  and  scrubbers.  From  these 
series  there  were  then  constructed  other  series  presenting  general 


I.     See  Table  5  in  the  appendix  of  his  volume. 


FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    1860-1891  43 

conclusions  regarding  all  the  employees  and  different  groups  of 
them.^ 

The  materials  of  the  Weeks  Report  embrace  tabulated  returns 
from  thirty-five  cotton  manufacturing  establishments,  of  which 
thirty  were  located  east  of  a  line  drawn  north  and  south  at  the 
eastern  boundary  of  Ohio,  and  of  which  twenty-two  were  in 
New  England.  Of  the  twenty-two  New  England  mills,  six  were 
in  Connecticut,  three  in  Maine,  six  in  Massachusetts,  six  in  New 
Hampshire  and  one  in  Rhode  Island.  Professor  Mitchell  studied 
as  one  group  the  thirty  mills  east  of  Ohio,  so  that  exact  com- 
parison of  the  Aldrich  and  Weeks  materials  is  not  possible. 
Unlike  the  Aldrich  Report,  the  Weeks  Report  made  no  record 
of  the  number  of  employees  receiving  each  designated  wage. 
For  general  purposes,  therefore,  as  well  as  for  the  purposes  of 
the  present  investigation,  the  information  of  the  Weeks  Report 
as  analyzed  by  Professor  Mitchell  is  not  as  satisfactory  as  that 
of  the  Aldrich  Report ;  but  it  is  useful  chiefly  to  serve  as  a  check 
upon  the  latter.  That  there  is  little  difference  between  the  con- 
ditions depicted  by  the  two  sets  of  figures  is  shown  by  the  accom- 
panying Table  (VIII)  and  Chart  (II)  of  relative  earnings 
computed  by  the  method  of  simple  medians. 


I.     For  a  detailed  description  of  the  methods  used,  see  .Mitchell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  94-97. 


44 


WAGES    IN    COTTON   MANUFACTURES 


TABLE  VIII    ■ 

Simple  Medians  of  Relative  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Massachusetts 
Cotton  Industry,  i860- 1880 

(Computed  from  the  Aldrich  and  Weeks  Reports) 


Year. 

Aldrich. 

Weeks. 

Year. 

Aldrich. 

Weeks. 

i860 

100 

100 

1871 

163 

157 

1861 

100 

100 

1872 

164 

160 

1862 

100 

100 

1873 

163 

160 

1863 

104 

ICX) 

1874 

154 

152 

1864 

118 

112 

1875 

147 

150 

1865 

131 

129 

1876 

141 

144 

1866 

153 

149 

1877 

140 

140 

1867 

160 

155 

1878 

138 

13s 

1868 

158 

150 

1879 

133 

i3> 

1869 

157 

151 

1880 

136 

139 

1870 

160 

15s 

I.  This  table  has  been  compiled  from  the  table  on  pp.  208-210  of  Professor 
Mitchell's  volume.  The  semi-annual  Aldrich  figures  have  been  averaged  to  obtain  one 
relative  wage  for  each  year.  The  simple  rule  of  calling  an  average  involving  the 
decimal  .5  or  over  equivalent  to  the  next  higher  unit  raises  slightly  in  a  few  cases  the 
level  of  the  relative  wage  as  compared  with  the  correspondmg  figure  of  the  Weeks 
Report.  • 

For  four  years  of  the  twenty-one  the  median  relatives  of  the  two  sets  of  quotations 
are  identical,  for  each  of  three  years  there  is  a  difference  of  two  points,  for  five  years  a 
difference  of  three  points,  for  three  years  four  points,  for  two  years  five  points,  for  three 
years  six  points,  and  for  one  year  eight  points.  The  differences  of  movement  shown 
by  the  two  curves  are  differences  of  magnitude  rather  than  of  general  direction. 


FULL   TLME    EARNINGS,    1860-1891 


45 


CHART  II 

The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton 

Industry,  1 860-1 880,  as  Shown  by  the  Method 

of  Simple  Medians 


.  Aldrich  Report 


Weeks  Report 


— i—r  T 

I  II- 

1    1    r 

1    1    1    1    1 

1    1    1    i" 

1    I 

- 

- 

-200 

200- 

- 

- 

-180 

180- 

- 

- 

-160 
-140 

J 

(^- 

^^"^ 

>^^ 

^^ 

160- 

140- 

-120 

/ 

120- 

_1  AA     

J' 

- 

-  eo 

—  100- 

ao- 

-  60 

60- 

-  40 

40- 

-  20 

S 

T  1  1 

10 

1    1    1 

1    1    1 

1 

1    1    1    1    1 

2 
1    1    1    1    1 

i 

n 

1   -^ 

ao- 

Therefore,  using  the  results  of  Professor  Mitchell's  work  with 
the  data  of  the  Aldrich  Report,  Table  IX  is  presented  showinfj 
the  inovements  of  the  Greenback  prices  of  gold,  of  relative 
wages  in  the  four  Massachusetts  cotton  mills  (by  the  methods 
of  weighted  averages  and  weighted  medians),  of  relative  whole- 
sale and  retail  prices  of  cotton  textiles,  and  of  general  retail 
prices  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  United  States.  On  Charts  III 
and  IV  are  curves  plotted  on  series  of  relatives  selected  from 
Table  IX. 


4H 


WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


TABLE  IX    ' 

The  Movements  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  Massachusetts  Cotton 
Mills,  and  of  Prices,  1860-1880 


I  i 

Wages  in  cotton  mill 

s. 

Commodity  prices. 

All  employees. 

Females. 

Males. 

Cotton  textiles. 

"IcS 

"ec^ 

■*  m 

•0  • 

•0  . 

■w  • 

JU 

•S"£2 

Prices 

i 

green 

Ho 

1 

.2^ 

"a 

"(5 
4> 

g  2  "  «» 

1" 

£ 
^ 

a 

i  s-2  = 

i860 

100 

lOI 

100 

100 

TOO 

100 

TOO  ■ 

100 

I86I 

100 

97 

102 

103 

100 

98 

124 

112 

1862 

H3 

98 

lOI 

104 

99 

161 

197 

129 

1863 

145 

108 

106 

107 

103 

292 

287 

149 

1864 

203 

127 

117 

112 

120 

462 

414 

179 

1865 

157 

140 

139 

143 

136 

411 

373 

189 

1866 

141 

161 

170 

172 

166 

320 

304 

181 

1867 

138 

167 

175 

182 

168 

227 

236 

172 

1868 

140 

165 

170 

174 

164 

181 

205 

169 

1869 

133 

169 

175 

177 

167 

174 

173 

162 

1870 

115 

166 

174 

179 

172 

159 

158 

152 

I87I 

112 

177 

186 

194 

171 

146 

13s 

140 

1872 

112 

183 

192 

209 

174 

151 

130 

136 

1873 

114 

178 

190 

205 

173 

140 

123 

'37 

1874 

III 

163 

182 

199 

169 

124 

116 

135 

1875 

"5 

150 

169 

181 

161 

112 

109 

130 

1876 

112 

145 

163 

174 

157 

93 

102 

125 

1877 

105 

142 

151 

160 

147 

87 

97 

122 

1878 

lOI 

145 

151 

168 

147 

79 

92 

116 

1879 

100 

144 

143 

163 

141 

79 

91 

114 

1880 

100 

153 

151 

165 

141 

90 

92 

115 

Base  (100)  ^quotations  for  i860  (January  quotations  where  such  exist) 


I.     Compiled  from  materials  presented  in  Mitchell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  91,  103-118,  278. 


FULL   TIME    EARNINGS,    1860-1891 


47 


CHART  III 

The  Movements  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  Massachusetts  Cotton   Mills, 
and  of  Prices,  i860- 1880 

Base  (100)  =  quotations  for  January,  i860 

Weighted  averages  of  relative  full  time  earnings  in  Massachusetts  Cotton  Mills. 


Relative  wholesale  prices  of  cotton  textiles. 

.X...X... Relative  general  retail  prices  in  the  East. 


. 

— 1  1  1  1  ■ 1  ■  >  ■  ■  1  t  1 — 

. 

1 

^ 

• 

i\ 

■ 

• 

• 

'400 

400- 

1    1 

• 

1     t 

f  ; 

• 

■ 

1  1 

t   1 

• 

1    1 

■ 

•500 

1    \ 

300- 

1    \ 

' 

* 

" 

• 

1     \ 

• 

■ 

1        \ 

■ 

•200 

1                 1 

1         \ 

200- 

• 

1  l*"'^'<jS/^ 

- 

• 

- 

- 

- 

•100   - 

-    100- 

X        / 

•s_-/ 

• 

0                  M                  0                   •»                  0 
«0                 >0                C-                  t'                oo 

- 

' 

00                 CO                CD                 00                «0 

.-1                     fH                     M                       eH                     »-< 

■ 

48 


WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


CHART   IV 

The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton 
Industry,  1 860-1 880;  by  Sex  Groups 

Base  (100)  =  quotations  for  January,  i860 

Weighted  averages  of  relative  wages  —  all  employees. 

Weighted  medians  of  relative  wages  —  all  employees. 

« Weighted  medians  of  relative  wages  —  females. 


X  —  X  —  Weighted  medians  of  relative  wages  —  males. 


1 — 1 — I — I — I — I — I — I — I — I    I    I    I — I — I — I — I — I — I — r 


■Z40 

220 
200 
180 
160 
140 
120 
100- 

-  60 

-  60 

-  40 

-  20 


1  '  "i*  '  ' 


J L 


I'll''   'I  T 


240- 

220- 

200' 

180 

160- 

140' 

120 

•100' 

80- 

<0- 

40- 

20- 


Examination  of  Table  IX  and  of  Charts  III  and  IV  shows 
that,  for  the  employees  of  these  textile  establishments  considered 
as  one  group,  wages  (as  measured  by  the  method  of  weighted 
averages)  fell  slightly  from  the  level  of  i860  in  1861  and  1862, 
but  from  1863  to  1867  rose  steadily  to  a  point  67  per  cent,  above 
the  level  of  January  i860.     In  the  three-year  period  1868- 1870 


FULL   TLME    EARNINGS,    1860-189I  49 

inclusive,  full  time  earnings  fluctuated  somewhat,  but  after  1870 
rose  again  until  in  1872  they  were  at  a  point  83  per  cent,  above 
the  level  of  January,  i860.  After  i  872  there  occurred  a  decline 
of  wages,  slight  at  first,  but  after  1873  rapid,  reaching  its  low 
point  in  1877;  but  this  low  point  was  still  42  per  cent,  above 
the  level  of  the  wages  of  January,  i860.  The  period  ends,  in 
1880,  with  the  wage  level  53  per  cent,  above  the  base  line. 

Comparison  of  the  series  of  weighted  averages  and  of  weighted 
medians  for  all  employees  shows  that  the  use  of  the  method  of 
weighted  averages  as  compared  with  that  of  weighted  medians 
does  not  magnify  the  upward  change  of  wages  after  i860.  And 
the  differences  between  the  two  sets  of  relative  figures  in  these 
two  cases  are  of  negligible  importance.  While  for  nearly  all  of 
the  period  the  weighted  medians  show  advances  of  wages  some- 
what greater  than  do  the  weighted  averages,  the  two  curves  are 
approximately  parallel.  The  curve  of  weighted  averages  is 
therefore  selected  as  the  more  conservative  and  for  the  additional 
reason  that  the  method  of  weighted  averages  tends  to  eliminate 
overstatements  of  wage  movements  which  might  be  due  to 
unrepresentative  distribution  of  wage  quotations  in  the  tally 
sheets  for  any  one  year. 

The  results  of  the  use  of  the  weighted  medians  have  been 
presented  here  to  make  possible  comparison  of  wage  changes 
applying  to  the  sex  groups.  Chart  IV  shows  clearly  that  the 
women  in  these  cotton  mills  shared  in  the  wage  advances  of  the 
greenback  period  to  a  greater  degree  than  did  the  men,  their 
advances  being  about  50  per  cent,  greater  than  those  of  the  men. 

The  table  and  the  charts  just  referred  to  present  in  statistical 
form  the  chief  facts  relating  to  wage  and  price  movements  in 
the  greenback  period.  It  now  remains  to  suggest  some  of  the 
forces  motivating  these  textile  wage  movements  and  to  present 
such  pieces  of  evidence  bearing  upon  them  as  have  been  possible 
of  collection  from  contemporary  records. 

Some  reference  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  displacement  of  gold 
money  as  the  circulating  medium  and  standard  of  value  during 
the  major  part  of  this  early  period ;  to  the  effects  of  paper 
currency   inflation    upon    price  movements.     Our  interest  here, 


50  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

however,  is  in  special  markets  for  labor  and  for  commodities. 
Conditions  existing  in  the  cotton  and  cotton  cloth  markets 
during  the  Civil  War  were  somewhat  peculiar  to  these  markets, 
the  prime  factor  at  work  being  the  so-called  "cotton  famine." 
The  then  fabulous  prices  of  raw  cotton,  which  would  normally 
enter  into  manufacturers'  costs  and  so  contribute  to  determine 
the  lower  limit  of  prices  of  mill  products,  were  prices  indicating, 
not  so  much  a  depreciation  of  the  currency,  as  inability  of  manu- 
facturers to  obtain  raw  materials  on  any  considerable  scale. 
As  to  the  trading  in  cotton  that  was  done,  to  the  extent  that 
both  the  raw  cotton  and  dry  goods  markets  were  highly 
organized,  there  would  be  a  tendency  for  their  prices  to  respond 
quickly  to  changed  conditions  of  the  currency.  At  the  same 
time,  to  the  extent  that  in  either  of  these  markets  there  was 
dealing  in  futures  and  that  in  the  conduct  of  cloth  manufacturing 
there  prevailed  the  custom  of  production  of  goods  on  orders  for 
delivery  at  more  or  less  remote  dates  in  the  future,  this  quick 
adjustment  of  prices  to  changed  currency  conditions  would  be 
stabilized.  Moreover,  the  use  in  textile  manufacturing  of  a  large 
amount  of  elaborate  and  expensive  equipment,  involving  heavy 
fixed  costs,  would  further  retard  the  adjustment  of  cloth  prices 
to  a  depreciation  of  the  currency.  There  is  found,  however,  as 
was  to  be  expected,  little  correlation  between  wage  and  price 
movements  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  and  the  green- 
back prices  of  gold.  In  as  much,  also,  as  the  prices  of  cotton 
textiles  both  at  wholesale  and  at  retail  declined  more  rapidly 
after  the  termination  of  the  Civil  War  than  did  the  retail  prices 
of  commodities  in  general,  we  must  look  more  particularly  into 
the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  itself  to  secure  an  explanation 
which  even  approximates  giving  satisfaction,  regarding  the  com- 
petitive forces  at  work  affecting  wages. ^ 


I.  The  downward  movement  of  the  prices  of  cotton  goods  from  1863  to  1871 
may  be  considered  to  be  chiefly  the  evidence  of  transition  from  abnormal  to  more  normal 
conditions  in  the  production  and  marketing  of  cotton  and  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
cloth.  The  more  gradual  downward  tendency  of  prices  from  1873  ^°  1879  is  in  general 
agreement  with  the  downward  movement  of  prices  in  general.  Note  that  cotton  goods, 
both  at  wholesale  and  at  retail  declined  more  than  did  commodities  in  general. 


FULL   TLME   EARN1N(;S,    1860-1891  51 

In  a  sense  the  rapid  upward  movement  of  the  curve  of  weighted 
average  relative  wages  from  1862  to  1866  is  misleading.  The 
quotations  upon  which  this  curve  is  plotted  arc  not  at  all 
indicative  of  prosperous  conditions  and  large  employment  of 
labor;  but  are  rather  quite  similar  to  the  nominal  quotations  of 
commodity  prices  at  times  when  producers  are  not  able  to  fill 
orders.  The  shutting  off  of  the  source  of  supplies  of  raw  cotton 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  caused  serious  stoppage  of  mills 
throughout  the  North.  It  happened  that  no  one  of  the  mills 
for  which  data  are  given  in  the  Aldrich  Report  was  closed  at  the 
dates  for  which  pay  rolls  were  examined.  But  the  number  of 
employees  enrolled  steadily  decreased  from  1,207  'r>  January, 
i860,  to  741  in  July,  1863  ;  andnotuntil  January,  1866,  do  the 
records  show  a  total  number  employed  as  great  as  the  force  in 
January,  i860.  In  the  W^eeks  Report  there  are  several  instances 
to  be  noted  in  which  there  was  complete  stoppage  of  operation.' 
It  happened  that  in  view  of  a  prospective  crop  shortage  in  1861, 
with  no  reference  to  the  coming  rebellion,  some  manufacturers 
had  laid  in  large  supplies  of  raw  materials  and  by  careful 
husbanding  of  this  stock  were  enabled  to  keep  in  operation  much 
longer  than  their  competitors.  But  the  shortage  began  to  be 
felt  very  keenly  in  1862  and  was  at  its  maximum  in  1863. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  war  some  cotton  was  bought  through  the 
Government  under  regulations  imposed  by  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment. Fite  tells-  us  that  during  the  first  year  of  the  war  the 
mills  were  for  the  most  part  operating  on  two-thirds  time  and 
during  the  second  year  on  one  fourth  to  one-half  time.  Mr. 
Samuel  Batchelder,  a  mill  manager,  says'^  that  in  1 863  about  one- 
third  of  the  spindles  of  the  Northern  states  were  kept  in  operation. 

Mr.  Charles  Cowley  of  Lowell  stated^  in  1868  that  "nine  of 
the  great  corporations  of  Lowell,  under  a  mistaken  belief  that 
they  could  not  run   their  mills  to  a  profit    during    the    War, 

1.  Weeks  Report,  pp.  331,  348,  350,  352,  356,  358,  361,  366. 

2.  Fite,  Emerson  D.,  Soiiiil  and  /niittsfrial  Conditions  in  the  Xorth  during  the 
Ci7'il  ir,ir,  p  86. 

3.  Batchelder,  Samuel,  Introduction  and  Early  Progress  of  the   Cotton   Afanu- 
factur,;  (1863),  pp.  97,  98. 

4.  Cowley,  Charles,  History  of  Lowell,  (revised  edition,  1868  \  p.  60. 


52  WAOES    OF   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

unanimously,  in  cold  blood,  dismissed  ten  thousand  operatives, 
penniless,  into  the  streets  !"  The  New  York  Herald  in  its  issue 
of  January  13,  1862  (p.  3)  published  a  long  article  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  textile  industries.  In  the  discussion  of  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industry,  under  the  heading,  "What  has  become 
of  the  operatives?"  there  is  the  following. 

From  extended  inquiry  we  find  that  the  contraction  of 
manufacturing  has  released  about  seventy  thousand  operatives 
from  the  mills.  About  one-lhird  of  these  are  males  who  have 
mostly  walked  out  of  the  factory  into  the  camp,  and  are  doing 
good  service  in  endeavoring  to  wrest  cotton  from  the  grasp  of 
the  rebels.  The  female  factory  hands  of  New  England  have, 
in  many  instances,  returned  to  their  rural  homes  until  the 
return  of  better  times,  and  others  have  employed  themselves 
in  making  up  clothing  for  the  army.  But  so  far  there  has 
been  nothing  like  suffering  among  the  operatives,  consequent 
upon  the  disarrangement  of  manufacturing 

When,  at  the  conclusion  of  hostilities,  supplies  of  raw  materials 
became  more  easily  available  and  resumption  of  mill  operations 
commenced  on  a  large  scale  the  markets  for  labor  and  for  goods 
were  quite  altered  from  the  conditions  of  i860.  Mr.  David  A. 
Wells  in  a  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  dated  Decem- 
ber, 1866  stated'  that  throughout  the  northern  states  manufac- 
turing industries  had  suffered  a  loss  of  desirable  employees  since 
comparatively  few  of  the  men  who  entered  the  army  from  the 
factories  returned  to  their  former  occupations.  Mr.  Cowley 
also  refers^  to  the  stoppage  of  work  by  the  Lowell  mills  as  a 
great  mistake  in  policy,  since,  when  the  mills  reopened,  there 
was  difficulty  in  securing  competent  operatives.  He  especially 
criticises  the  mill  owners  for  having  made  no  adequate  provision 
for  the  employment  of  overseers  and  more  skilled  workers  many 
of  whom  in  the  years  of  war  joined  the  enterpriser  class. 

But  more  particularly  was  there  a  scarcity  of  women  and  girl 
operatives.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  reopening  of 
the  mills  after  the  war  failed   to  attract  many  of  the  former 


1.  Senate  Executive  Documents,  39th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  Doc.  2,  p.  21. 

2.  Cowley,  op.  cit.,  p.  61. 


FULL   TLME    EARNINGS,    1860-1891  53 

female  operatives  of  American  stock.  The  situation  in  the 
market  for  women  cotton  mill  workers  may  best  be  described  in 
the  words  of  Commissioner  Wells. 

The  opening  up  of  many  new  employments  to  women, 
coupled  with  an  increased  prosperity  of  the  agricultural  classes, 
has  also  produced  in  many  sections  of  the  country,  an  unusual 
scarcity  of  female  operatives.  This  is  particularly  the  case  in 
the  manufacturing  districts  of  New  England,  and  has  not  been 
remedied  by  an  advance  in  wages.  The  average  rate  of  wages 
paid  to  adult  female  operatives  in  New  England  cotton  mills 
is  reported  to  be  one  dollar  per  day,  while  in  cases  of  the  more 
skilled  operatives,  earnings  of  from  twenty  to  thirty,  and  even 
forty  dollars  per  month,  exclusive  of  board,  are  reported.  As 
an  illustration  of  the  independence  of  labor  over  capital  in  this 
department,  it  may  be  stated  that,  during  the  summer  of  1866, 
the  product  of  the  cotton  mills  of  New  England  was  variously 
reduced  from  five  to  twenty-five  per  cent.,  through  the  inability 
to, obtain  female  operatives,  even  with  the  inducement  of  the 
highest  rates  of  wages  ever  paid  in  this  branch  of  manufacture. 
In  one  instance  specifically  reported  to  the  commissioner, 
(viz;  the  Amoskeag  Manufacturing  Company,  New  Hamp- 
shire,) at  least  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  machinery  stood 
still  for  a  period  of  three  months  in  1S66,  for  the  sole  reason 
of  an  inability  to  procure  operatives. ^ 

Another  result  growing  out  of  this  competitive  demand  for 
labor  is,  that  the  labor  itself  becomes  unstable  in  its  character ; 
to  meet  which  a  not  uncommon  practice  has  prevailed  in  New 
England  of  offering  ten  per  cent,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary 
rates  of  wages,  conditioned  on  the  continuance  of  the  engage- 
ment for  a  certain  definite  period. - 

The  phenomenon  above  referred  to,  that  is,  the  relatively 
greatei  scarcity  of  female  as  compared  with  male  operatives  in 
the  years  immediately  following  the  conclusion  of  hostilities,  is 
reflected  in  the  diagram  depicting  the  wage  movements  of  the 
sex  groups  of  employees.  These  curves  of  weighted  medians  of 
relative  wages  rise  abruptly  during  the  war  years,  attaining  in 


1.  Senate  Executive  Documents,  39tli  Congress,  2il  Session,  Doc.  2,  p.  22. 

2.  Ibid.,  p.  23. 


54  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

1867  levels  considerably  favoring  the  women.  From  1867  on 
until  the  end  of  the  period  here  under  study  these  superior 
gains,  although  subject  to  greater  fluctuations  than  those  of  the 
men,  were  in  general  maintained.  In  1880  the  relative  wages 
of  the  women,  as  compared  with  those  of  i860  by  the  use  of 
the  weighted  medians,  showed  a  gain  of  65  per  cent.,  while  the 
gain  of  the  men  during  the  whole  period  was  about  41  percent. 

Contemporary  accounts  give  interesting  information  concern- 
ing the  downward  course  of  wages  after  the  panic  of  1873.  In 
November  of  that  year  the  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle 
noted^  editorially  the  stoppage  of  the  cotton  mills,  which,  it 
said,  was  not  due  to  any  fundamental  unsoundness  in  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industry  itself,  but  to  the  panic,  with  its  resulting 
stoppage  of  sales  and  difificulty  of  collections. 

But  the  next  year  witnessed  a  depression  more  peculiar  to  the 
cotton  industry  itself.  On  September  23,  1874  treasurers  and 
managers  of  mills  met  in  Boston  to  consider  plans  for  the  relief 
of  the  depressed  market  for  cloth.  It  was  voted  at  this  meeting 
that-  "it  is  imperatively  required  that  the  production  of  the 
cotton  mills  of  New  England  should  be  reduced  by  at  least  one- 
third,  until  the  proper  relation  between  the  cost  of  production 
and  the  market  value  of  goods  shall  be  re-established,  and  the 
relation  between  supply  and  demand  adjusted.  At  a  second 
meeting  a  working  schedule  of  four  days  a  week  was  agreed 
upon.'^  At  a  similar  meeting  held  at  Providence  on  September 
25th  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to  reduce  production  one-third 
for  the  following  three  months.  At  this  meeting,  according  to 
the  Chronicle,*  "facts  were  submitted  showing  that  the  prices 
of  most  of  the  cotton  fabrics  [were]  below  the  actual  cost  of 
production." 


1.  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  November  i,  1873,  pp.  583,  584. 

2.  Ibid.,  September  26,  1874,  p.  333. 

3.  Ibid.,  October  3,  1874,  p.  355. 

4.  Ibid.,  September  26,  1874,  p.  333.  The  Chronicle  of  January  i,  1876  com- 
ments (p.  4)  on  the  difficulty  of  carrying  out  systematic  and  combined  curtailment. 
Some  additional  references  in  the  same  publication  to  curtailment  are  April  3,  1867, 
p.  455;  June  8,  1867,  p.  757;  June  22,  1867,  p.  789;  November  16,  1867,  p.  615; 
October  29,  1870,  p.  554. 


FULL  TIME   EARNINGS,    1860-1891  55 

The  extent  and  seriousness  of  the  depression  which  this  policy 
of  curtaihnent  was  intended  to  reh'eve  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
despite  the  remedial  measures  attempted  the  market  was  very 
slow  in  reviving.  Although  there  was  some  difficulty  in  securing 
uniformity  of  curtailment  —  some  mills,  particularly  those  in 
Lowell,  failing  to  get  into  line  in  the  carrying  out  of  the  plan  — 
the  systematic  curtailment  probably  amounted  to  25  per  cent, 
of  normal  production.  This  was  supplemented  by  enforced 
idleness  because  of  shortage  of  water  power  and  because  of 
strikes.  The  reduction  of  operation  caused  by  all  of  these  factors 
was  estimated  to  amount  to  331/S  per  cent,  which  was  what  the 
original  plan  contemplated.  The  market,  however,  did  not 
quickly  respond  and  would  not  take  the  small  amounts  of  goods 
offered.^  Not  until  the  summer  of  1876  were  there  indications 
of  a  recovery  of  the  print  cloth  market'^,  which  had  been  most 
affected  by  the  depression. 

In  1880,  then,  we  have  the  following  situation.  Gold  in  terms 
of  Greenbacks  was  at  par.  Raw  cotton  was  12  per  cent,  higher 
in  price  than  in  i860,  although  in  1879  it  had  been  at  the  same 
price  as  in  i860.  Cotton  goods  were  selling  at  wholesale  for 
10  per  cent,  less  than  in  i860,  and  at  retail  for  8  per  cent.  less. 
Commodities  in  general  retailed  in  the  East  at  prices  averaging 
about  15  per  cent,  more  than  in  i860,  while  wages  in  the  cotton 
industry,  so  far  as  the  Aldrich  data  are  typical,  averaged  about 
53  per  cent,  higher  than  immediately  before  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  while  the  cost  of  living  was  about  25  per  cent  higher. 

We  have  seen  that  the  premium  on  gold  had  little  direct 
explanatory  connection  with  the  war  prices  of  cotton  and  of  cloth 
and  could  therefore  have  had  little  direct  effect  upon  the  earnings 
of  the  comparatively  few  operatives  employed  during  the  war. 
A  temporary  scarcity  of  operatives,  especially  of  women  and 
girls,  apparently  operated  to  secure  for  the  workers  a  higher 
wage  standard  when  full  manufacturing  activity  was  resumed  ; 
while  the  dull  years  of  1873  to  1877  ^^  reflected  in  lower  prices 
and   curtailment  of   production  brought  gradually   decreasing 

1.  Commercial  and  Financial  Chronicle,  February  13,  1S75,  p.  166. 

2.  Ibid.,  August  5,  1S76,  p.  124. 


56  WAGES   IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

earnings.  The  fi<^iires  for  1879  and  1880  show  slightly  improving 
conditions  with  respect  to  both  prices  and  wages. 

In  order  to  trace  at  all  accurately  the  course  of  full  time 
earnings  in  the  New  England  cotton  manufacturing  industry 
from  1880  to  1890,  it  is  necessary  to  have  recourse  again  to  the 
data  of  the  Aldrich  Report,  since  these  constitute  the  most 
reliable  and  comprehensive  body  of  information  available.  Yet 
it  is  not  possible  to  rely  upon  the  final  report  of  this  committee 
as  formally  presented,  for  the  reasons  which  caused  Professor 
Mitchell  to  go  to  the  original  Aldrich  Report  exhibits  and  apply 
to  the  information  therein  contained  more  discriminating 
statistical  methods  than  were  applied  in  the  compilation  of  the 
Aldrich  Report  itself.  As  Professor  Mitchell  shows, ^  in  this 
report  either  there  was  no  allowance  made  for  differences  in  the 
sizes  of  the  groups  of  employees  represented  by  the  several 
wage  quotations  in  the  original  exhibits  or  there  was  used  a 
faulty  method  of  weighting  (on  the  basis  of  the  census  returns 
for  occupations).  Also,  an  arbitrary  and  unwarranted  dis- 
tinction was  made  between  the  establishments  reported  as 
manufacturing  cotton  goods  and  the  one  establishment  reported 
as  manufacturing  ginghams. 

Therefore  there  is  presented  here  a  continuation  for  the  period 
1 880-1 89 1  of  the  work  done  by  Professor  Mitchell  for  the  green- 
back period.  In  the  application  of  Professor  Mitchell's  methods, 
however,  the  number  of  series  of  quotations  has  been  consider- 
ably reduced.  Professor  Mitchell  constructed  135  series  of 
relative  wages,  but  they  were  not  all  representative  of  distinctly 
textile  operative  occupations.  Beltmen,  blacksmiths,  boilermen, 
carpenters,  machinists,  masons,  oilers,  watchmen,  scrubbers, 
sweepers  and  yard  hands,  although  employed  by  textile  mills, 
are  not  in  a  narrow  sense  textile  operatives.  The  wages  which 
these  persons  receive  have  not  necessarily  a  close  relationship 
to  the  wages  of  spinners,  weavers,  carders,  slashers  and  pickers, 
but  are  rather  determined  by  conditions  in  the  local  labor 
market  in  these  several   occupations.     Moreover,  overseers  in 


I.      Gold,  Prices,  and  Wages  under  the  Greenback  Standard,  pp.    169- 1 72,    and 
History  of  the  Greenbacks,  pp.  280-282. 


FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    1860-1891  57 

the  mill  departments,  while  textile  workers,  are  not  operatives 
in  the  sense  in  which  this  word  is  commonly  accepted.  They 
are  rather  technical  experts  and  skilled  managers.  The  series 
of  quotations  in  the  Aldrich  Report,  then,  for  these  groups  were 
excluded  from  consideration,  with  the  result  that  there  remained 
74  occupational  series.  Of  these  27  represented  females,  46 
represented  males,  29  represented  males  who  in  i860  received 
wages  of  less  than  $1.00  per  day,  and  17  represented  males  who 
in  i860  received  $i.oo  or  more  per  day.  In  January  1880, 
1,419  persons  were  represented  as  compared  with  1,774  in  the 
series  used  by  Professor  Mitchell;  in  July,  1891,  1,883  were 
represented. 

To  these  74  occupational  series,  then  Professor  Mitchell's 
methods  were  applied  retaining  as  a  base  (100)  the  wages 
reported  as  being  paid  in  January,  i860,  in  order  to  secure  com- 
parability with  the  results  of  the  study  of  the  greenback  period. 
That  Professor  Mitchell's  inclusion  of  the  non-textileoccupational 
groups  did  not  destroy  the  representative  character  of  his  results 
so  far  as  concerns  the  New  England  cotton  manufacturing 
industry,  and  that  it  is  possible  to  treat  the  present  computations 
of  relative  full  time  earnings  for  the  period  1880-1891  as  com- 
parable with  Professor  Mitchell's  series,  is  evidenced  by  the 
figures  of  Table  X,  showing  the  results  of  the  application  of  the 
same  statistical  methods  to  the  two  bodies  of  data  for  the  year 
1880.^  The  discrepancies  in  results  are  so  small  as  to  be 
negligible  for  the  purposes  of  this  study. 


I.  See  Mitchell,  Gold,  Prices,  and  Wages  under  the  Greenback  Standard,  pp. 
iiS,  120,210.  By  "weighted  averages"  is  meant  an  average  computed  by  counting 
each  relative  wage  in  the  series  once  for  each  employee  listed  at  that  wage.  Similarly 
a  "weighted  meiiian"  is  a  median  found  by  listing  each  relative  wage  once  for  each 
employee  listed  as  receiving  that  wage.  Hy  the  "simple  median"  method  each  relative 
wage  is  listed  only  once  regardless  of  the  number  of  employees  represented. 


58 


WAGES   IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 


TABLE  X 

Relative  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Massachussetts  Cotton  Industry 
in  the  year  1880 

Base  (100)  =  quotations  for  January,  i860 

A.     Results  of  the  use  of  135  occupational  series  of  quotations. 


Weighted 
Averages. 

Weighted  medians. 

Simple 
medians. 

• 

All  employees. 

All   employees. 

Females. 

Males. 

All  employees. 

January 

July 

Average 

152 

149 
152 
150.5 

166 
163 
164.5 

141 
140 
140.5 

135 
137 
136 

B.     Results  of  the  use  of  74 

occupational  series  of  quotations. 

January 

152 

149 

164 

141 

136 

July 

157 

152 

163 

140 

137 

Average 

154-5 

150-5 

163-5 

140.5 

136.5 

The  results  of  the  statistical  analysis  of  the  raw  materials  of 
the  Aldrich  Report  for  the  years  1 880-1 891  are  presented  in 
Table  XI  and  Chart  V,  showing  respectively  series  and  curves 
(based  upon  the  series)  of  weighted  average  relative  wages. 
The  base  used  by  Professor  Mitchell  for  the  greenback  period  is 
here  retained,  so  that  the  curve  of  weighted  average  relative 
wages  of  all  employees  for  the  later  period  may  be  regarded  as  a 
continuation  of  the  corresponding  curve  plotted  by  Professor 
Mitchell. 1 


1 .  There  is,  of  course,  a  failure  of  the  series  for  the  two  periods  to  connect  per- 
fectly, when  weighted  averages  of  relative  wages  are  used,  as  in  the  body  of  this  study. 
(See  Table  X).  In  constructing  a  series  to  summarize  the  movement  of  earnings  for 
the  whole  period  since  i860,  the  writer  has  used  for  the  year  1880  a  compromise  figure, 
154.     See  Chapter  \I. 


FULL  TIME   EARNINGS,    i860- 1 89 1 


59 


TABLE  XI 

The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton 
Industry,    1880-1891 

Base  (100)  =  quotations  for  January,  i860 


.5-SS 

•5-2  s 

u 

J= 

0 

jj 

~  «*  _  « 

T  u  '^  rt 

c« 

c 

a. 

n 

^ 

;:  ^  =-6 

f   y  UTJ 

>• 

0 

E 

a 

■r.  t.  j:  u. 

«  !i  0  u 

S 

" 

X 

S 

iSZ^ 

■5-2*  »■ 

^00   ID 

w  «  — 

< 

2«  w 

S-i* 

1880 

January 

152 

170 

139 

143 

129 

July 

'57 

171 

141 

'44 

'34 

Average 

155 

171 

140 

'44 

132 

1881 

January 

147 

'55 

138 

140 

'33 

July 

151 

167 

132 

'36 

'3' 

Average 

149 

161 

'35 

138 

132 

1882 

January 

158 

171 

141 

143 

134 

July 

156 

162 

148 

154 

'35 

Average 

157 

167 

'45 

'49 

'35 

1883 

Januar)- 

160 

173 

145 

'49 

'36 

July 

156 

171 

136 

'37 

'33 

Average 

158 

172 

141 

'43 

'35 

1884 

January 

154 

'65 

'38 

141 

'3' 

July 

156 

167 

141 

145 

129 

Average 

155 

166 

140 

143 

'3° 

1885 

January 

150 

160 

136 

'39 

128 

July 

149 

158 

136 

140 

126 

Average 

150 

'59 

'36 

140 

127 

1886 

January 

149 

157 

136 

140 

126 

July 

157 

168 

142 

148 

126 

Average 

153 

163 

139 

144 

126 

1887 

lanuary 

158 

163 

150 

'55 

'34 

July 

162 

170 

'5' 

156 

'35 

Average 

160 

167 

151 

156 

'35 

1888 

January 

162 

169 

150 

'55 

135 

July 

165 

172 

'55 

162 

'36 

Average 

164 

171 

153 

159 

136 

1889 

January 

166 

177 

148 

152 

'38 

July 

172 

182 

'57 

162 

139 

Average 

169 

180 

'53 

'57 

139 

1890 

January 

168 

178 

154 

158 

141 

July 

173 

182 

158 

'63 

'43 

Average 

171 

180 

156 

161 

142 

I89I 

lanuar)' 

171 

180 

158 

'63 

'43 

July 

'73 

'83 

kS 

164 

142 

Average 

172 

182 

158 

164 

'43 

In  averaging  the  two  relative  wages  for  each  year  .5  or  greater 
has  been  considered  as  i.  in  order  to  secure  comparability  with 
the  work  covering  the  earlier  period. 


00 


WAGES    IN    CO'ITON    MANUFACTURES 
CHART    V 


The  Movement  of  Full  Time   Earnings   in   the   Massachusetts  Cotton 
Industry,  1880-1891 

Base  (100)  =  quotations  for  January,  i86o 


.  All  employees. 
.F'emales. 


-  X — Males. 

Males  receiving  in  i860  less  than  $1  per  day. 

—  ••Males  receiving  in  i860  $1  or  more  per  day. 


^ 

1     1     1 

I        1        1        I        I        1        1        1        1 

- 

-240 

240- 

-220 

220- 

-200 

200- 

-180 

.♦.•.^•- 

leo- 

- 

\      ."• 

"*-N     "■^:^ — 

- 

-i60 

V- 

-\^^^:^/     

•-<r../- 

160- 

-140 

^^ 

140- 

-120 

120- 

- 

- 

inn  - 

-  60 

80- 

-  60 

60- 

-  40 

40- 

-  20 

-  • 

s 

1        1        1 

CO                                        o> 

00                                                      0 

<-l                                     It 

1    1    t    1    1    1    1    1    1 

ao- 

For  the  employees  treated  as  a  single  group,  the  upward 
movement  of  wages  which  began  in  1878  and  continued  in 
1880  was  of  short  duration.  The  decline  to  the  low  relative 
wage  of  149  in  1881  was  likewise  temporary,  wages  rising  in 
1883  to  a  point  higher  than  in  any  preceding  year  since  1874, 


FULL   TIME    EARNINGS,    1860-1891  61 

the  first  year  of  depression  following  the  panic  of  1873.  The 
panic  year  of  1884  witnessed  a  slight  decline  and  the  following 
year  a  greater  one  ;  so  that  wages  approached  again  the  low 
level  of  1 88 1.  The  years  following  1885  showed  steadily 
increasing  earnings,  the  relative  wage  of  1891  being  172. 

Examining  the  curves  of  wages  for  the  separate  groups  of 
workers,  we  find  that,  as  in  the  greenback  period,  the  relative 
wages  of  females  (using  the  January,  i860  quotations  as  the 
base  of  100)  were  higher  than  those  of  males.  Moreover,  the 
men  who  in  i860  were  paid  less  than  $1  per  day  received 
throughout  this  period  greater  relative  wages  than  those  who 
in  i860  received  $i  or  more  per  day.  At  the  same  time  it 
should  be  noted  that  while  during  the  short  period  following 
the  greenback  era  the  relative  wages  of  the  several  groups  were 
at  the  levels  just  indicated,  using  i860  as  the  base  year,  the 
net  gains  of  the  male  employees,  and  especially  of  those  males 
who  were  the  poorest  paid  in  i860,  were  far  greater  than  those 
of  the  women.  Measured  in  terms  of  the  relative  wage 
"points,"  all  the  employees  advanced  between  1880  and  1891 
17  points,  the  females,  11  points,  the  males  18  points,  the  males 
who  in  i860  received  less  than  $1  per  day  20  points,  and  the 
better  paid  males  i  i  points.  In  other  words,  those  employees 
who  in  the  greenback  period  made  the  least  gains  in  wages 
began  during  the  period  1880-1891  to  catch  up  with  their 
fellow  workers. 


62  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   MOVEMENT    OF     FULL    TIME     EARNINGS     IN    THE   COTTON 

MANUFACTURING    INDUSTRY    OF   MASSACHUSETTS,    MAINE 

AND    RHODE   ISLAND,    189O-1916 

The  most  complete  and  detailed  body  of  information  avail- 
able for  the  study  of  the  movement  of  earnings  in  the  New 
England  cotton  manufacturing  industry  for  the  years  since  and 
including  1890  is  that  published  by  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Labor  and  its  successor,  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
This  Bureau,  in  its  19th  Annual  Report  (1904),  commenced  a 
series  of  tables  showing  wages  and  hours  of  labor  in  sixty  or 
more  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries.  The  informa- 
tion in  this  report  covered  the  period  1 890-1903.  Bulletins 
59,  65,  71  and  TJ,  appearing  in  1905,  1906,  1907  and  1908 
respectively,  continued  the  se^ries  of  wages  and  hours  quota- 
tions for  the  several  industries.  Bulletins  128,  150  and  190 
(1913,  1914  and  1916  respectively)  continued  the  series  for 
the  textile  industries.  Bulletin  239  (191 8)  extended  the  quo- 
tations for  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry.^ 

The  materials  relating  to  cotton  manufacturing  contained  in 
these  serial  reports  were  collected  by  the  agents  of  the  Bureau 
from  the  payrolls  of  establishments  in  different  states.  Sum- 
maries were  usually  either  for  all  the  establishments  repre- 
sented or  in  some  cases  by  geographical  divisions.  Obviously 
such  a  grouping  of  data  could  not  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  present  study,  and  therefore  recourse  was  had  to  the 
original  exhibits  or  general  tables  of  the  reports  in  order  to 
make  a  classification  of  data  suited  to  the  purpose  in  hand. 
From  these  scattered  tables  it  was  found  possible  to  construct 
series  of  quotations  for  the  period    1 890-1916  for  four  of  the 

I.     With  the  exception  that  no  information  was  secured  for  1915. 


FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    189Q-1916  63 

chief  occupations  in  the  cotton  mills  of  three  New  England 
states,  Massachusetts,  Maine  and  Rhode  Island.  These  occu- 
pations were  those  of  card  strippers  or  carding  machine 
tenders,  loom  fixers,  frame  spinners  and  weavers.  In  the  last 
named  group  separate  series  for  the  sexes  were  available.  The 
members  of  the  first  two  groups  were  males;  those  of  the  third 
group  females.  While,  of  course,  the  members  of  these  few 
occupational  groups  form  only  a  part  of  the  force  of  operatives 
in  any  mill,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the)'  are  the  workers 
performing  the  tasks  connected  with  the  major  or  more  funda- 
mental processes.^  And  since  it  has  been  found  that  changes 
in  rates  of  wages  have  affected  all  mill  departments  about 
equally,  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  the  five  complete  occu- 
pational series  available  represent  fairly  accurate!)-  the  changing 
wage  conditions  in  the  industry. 

In  the  original  tables  published  by  the  Bureau  there  were 
usually^  presented  for  each  year  of  each  scries  three  figures 
which  are  of  interest  here:  (i)  the  average  earnings  per  hour 
of  the  operatives  whose  wages  were  reported;  (2)  the  nominal 
full  time  hours  of  labor  per  week  ;  and  (3)  the  nominal  full 
time  earnings  per  week.  The  third  item  is  the  product  of  the 
first  two.  The  first  item  was  found  by  ascertaining  for  each 
operative  included  in  the  investigation  the  total  earnings  for 
the  payroll  period  and  the  number  of  hours  worked  and  then 
dividing  the  former  by  the  latter.  Then  the  hourly  earnings 
of  all  the  operatives  in  the  occupational  group  in  all  the  mills 
were  added  and  the  sum  divided  by  the  number  of  items. 
Piece  and  time  workers  were  all  massed  together,  if  it  happened 


1 .  For  a  particularly  detailed  description  of  the  tasks  of  the  several  occupational 
groups  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry,  see  Bulletin  239  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  pp.  140-205. 

The  occupation  of  mule  spinning  is  the  chief  one  of  importance  for  which  a  com- 
plete series  of  (juotations  is  not  available.  This  occupation,  while  important  in  so  far 
as  it  is  connected  with  a  fundamental  technical  process  and  also  since  it  belongs  to  a 
group  of  workers  who  may  be  considered  to  be  among  the  most  skilful  of  all  textile 
operatives,  comprises  a  membership  which  has  in  recent  years  declined  relatively  to 
the  numbers  of  all  textile  employees. 

2.  The  practice  of  the  Bureau  was  not  uniform.  Sometimes  the  third  item 
named  in  the  text  was  omitted. 


64  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

that  in  any  group  workers  were  employed  under  both  systems. 
Thus  earnings  were  reduced  to  a  standard  unit  of  calculation, 
the  hour  of  labor. 

Regarding  the  second  group  of  items,  full  time  hours  of 
labor  per  week,  in  all  but  two  or  three  cases  the  full  time  hours 
reported  in  the  publications  of  the  Bureau  were  the  maximum 
hours  allowed  by  state  laws  for  women  and  minors.  The  excep- 
tional cases  appeared  very  early  in  the  series,  at  a  time  when  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  to  make  allowance  for 
short  time  operation  if  such  a  condition  prevailed  over  ten 
months  of  the  year.  The  first  step,  therefore,  in  the  revision 
of  the  official  figures  consisted  in  the  elimination  of  such 
unusual  figures  computed  by  a  method  no  longer  in  use, 

A  second  step  of  revision  consisted  of  a  refinement  which 
makes  allowance  for  the  exact  dates  of  effectiveness  of  state 
laws  reducing  the  maximum  hours  of  labor  for  women  and 
minors.  For  example,  the  fifty-eight  hour  law  of  Massachu- 
setts went  into  effect  on  July  i,  1892.  This  meant  that  the 
operatives  worked  for  six  months  in  1892  under  the  sixty-hour 
system  and  for  six  months  under  the  fifty-eight-hour  system. 
The  average  full  time  operation  of  the  mills  in  Massachusetts 
in  1892  was  therefore  fifty-nine  hours  per  week,  and  to  ascer- 
tain the  nominal  or  full  time  earnings  for  a  week  in  1892, 
assuming  the  hourly  quotations  to  be  correct  or  representative 
of  conditions,  these  hourly  earnings  should  be  multiplied  by 
fifty-nine. 

In  1910  and  1912  in  Massachusetts  the  reductions  of  the 
working  week  became  effective  on  January  first.  In  Maine, 
likewise,  the  fifty-eight  hour  law  went  into  effect  on  Januar}-  i, 
1910.^  In  Rhode  Island  a  similar  law  took  effect  on  April  4, 
1902.'-^  The  operatives  in  that  state  in  1902  therefore  worked 
for  one-fourth  of  the  year  under  a  full  time  system  of  sixty 
hours  per  week  and  for  three-fourths  of  a  year  under  the  fifty 
eight  hour  system.  The  average  full  time  week  for  the  year 
was  fifty-eight  and  one-half  hours.     The  Rhode  Island  law  of 


1.  Maine,  Bureau  of  Industrial  and  Labor  Statistics,  1909,  p.  476. 

2.  Rhode  Island,  Public  Laws,  1902,  p.  73.     (Ch.  994). 


FULL   TIME    EARNINGS,    189O-1916  65 

April  7,  1909  providing  for  the  fifty-six  hour  week  took  effect 
on  the  first  Monday  in  January,  1910.'  The  fifty-four  hour 
law  of  the  same  state  was  efifective  July  i,  19 13.'- 

Tables  XII,  XIII,  and  XIV  and  Charts  VI,  VII,  and  VIII 
exhibit  the  results  of  the  work  of  piecing  together  the  disjointed 
parts  of  series  in  the  Bureau  of  Labor  data  and  of  making  the 
slight  modifications  just  described  with  respect  to  the  calcula- 
tion of  full  time  hours  and  of  full  time  earnings.  The  quota- 
tions of  hourly  earnings  as  given  in  the  original  tables  have 
been  unchanged  except  that  for  certain  years  where  the  quota- 
tion is  marked  by  an  asterisk  quotations  published  in  different 
bulletins  covering  different  groups  of  establishments  have  been 
averaged.  Such  marked  quotations  do  not  include  all  the  cases 
in  which  there  has  been  an  overlapping  of  reports,  for  cases 
frequently  occurred  in  which  different  bulletins  covering  the 
same  year  gave  identical  quotations. 

The  relative  wages  given  are  the  relative  full  time  weekly 
earnings.  The  base  for  each  series  of  relative  full  time  earnings 
has  been  constructed  by  taking  a  simple  average  of  the  nominal 
full  time  earnings  for  the  ten-year  period  1 890-1 899.  Obvi- 
ously a  series  of  relative  full  time  weekly  earnings  for  a  series 
of  years  may  serve  as  a  series  of  relative  full  time  earnings  for 
the  whole  year,  provided  that  the  conditions  of  employment  at 
the  time  the  agents  of  the  Bureau  studied  the  payrolls  were 
typical  of  conditions  for  the  year,  i,  e.,  with  respect  to  piece 
rates,  quality  of  stock  used,  number  of  machines  tended  by  each 
operative,  and  so  forth. 

Each  one  of  the  charts,  which  refer  to  the  conditions  in 
Massachusetts,  Maine  and  Rhode  Island,  shows  that  during  the 
last  decade  of  the  last  century  relative  full  time  earnings  for 
the  groups  of  operatives  covered  fluctuated  back  and  forth 
above  and  below  the  base  line,  being  slightly  above  the  base 
in  1893,  slightly  below  in  1894  and  1895,  very  slightly  above 
in  1896  and  1897,  and  below  in  1899,  The  year  1900  witnessed 
the  beginning  of  a  marked  upward   movement  which,  although 


1.  Rhode  Island,  Public  Laws,  1909,  pp.  41,  42.     (Ch.  384). 

2.  Ibid.,  1913,  pp.  6,  7.     (Ch.  912). 


66 


WAGES   IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 


checked  in  Massachusetts  (in  1901  and  1902)  and  even 
reversed  in  Maine  (in  1902  and  1903)  and  in  Rhode  Island 
(in  1901  and  1904)  culminated  in  1907.  The  panic  of  1907 
and  the  years  of  depression  immediately  following  caused  a 
marked  decline  of  earnings  and  not  until  191 2  did  earnings 
generally  begin  again  to  rise.  Although  the  published  reports 
of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  do  not  bring  the  wage  quota- 
tions up  to  date,  they  are  sufficiently  complete  to  indicate  some 
of  the  results  of  the  known  advances  of  piece  rates  under  the 
war  conditions  of  1916.  Only  two  groups  of  operatives  studied, 
male  and  female  weavers  in  Maine,  fail  to  show  exclusively 
increasing  earnings  since  1913,  and  these  exceptions  are  such 
as  to  be  of  negligible  importance,  the  female  weavers  appear- 
ing to  have  received  in  19 14  only  4  cents  per  week  less  than  in 
1913,  and  the  male  weavers  only  12  cents  less. 

TABLE  XII 
The  Movement  of  Earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton  Industry, 

1890-1916 


Card  Strippers 

-Male. 

Frame  Spinners 

—  Female. 

. 

Nominal  fFull  Time) 

ui 

Nomina 

(Full  Time) 

e5 

V 

E—  "  " 

1;  == 

Weekly 

Earnings. 

~  c 

Weekly  Earnings. 

> 

°  =  0^ 

o'5 

c'E 

^u.x 

4<  ^ 

Absolute 

Relative. 

s« 

Absolute. 

Relative. 

» 

(Base  =$6,187) 

M 

(Base  z=  $5,408) 

1890 

60 

$.0999 

$5-99 

96.8 

$.0911 

$5-47 

lOI.I 

189I 

60 

•1035 

6.21 

100.4 

.0894 

5-36 

99.1 

1892 

59** 

•  1057 

6.24 

100.9 

.0912 

5-38 

99-5 

1893 

58 

.1089 

6.31 

102.0 

.0992 

5-75 

106.3 

1894 

58 

.1065 

6.18 

99-9 

.0892 

5-17 

95.6 

189s 

58 

.1064 

6.17 

99-7 

.0912 

5.29 

97.8 

1896 

58 

.1086 

6.30 

101.8 

.0967 

5.61 

103.7 

1897 

58 

.1083 

6.28 

101.5 

.0960 

5-57 

103.0 

1898 

58 

.1074 

6.23 

100.7 

.0916 

5-31 

98.2 

1899 

58 

.1027 

5.96 

96.3 

.0892 

5-17 

95-6 

1900 

58 

.1183 

6.86 

1 10.9 

.1041 

6.04 

III. 7 

I9OI 

58 

.1186 

6.88 

III. 2 

.1025 

5-95 

IIO.O 

1902 

58 

.1186 

6.88 

III. 2 

.1028 

5.96 

no. 2 

1903 

58 

.1206 

6.99 

113-0 

.1055* 

6.12 

1 13.2 

1904 

58 

.1194* 

6.93 

1 1 2.0 

.1028* 

5-96 

no. 2 

1905 

58 

.1196 

6.94 

112. 2 

•1055 

6.12 

113. 2 

1906 

58 

.1286* 

7.46 

120.6 

.1221 

7.08 

130.9 

1907 

58 

.1441* 

8.36 

I35-I 

.1307* 

8.07 

149.2 

1908 

58 

•1325 

7.69 

124.3 

.1322 

7.67 

141. 8 

1909 

58 

.1262 

7-32 

118.3 

.1242 

7.20 

I33-I 

I9IO 

56 

.1283* 

7.19 

116. 2 

.1307* 

7-32 

135-3 

I9II 

56 

.1287* 

7.21 

116. 5 

.1314* 

7-36 

136.9 

I9I2 

54 

•  1437 

7.76 

125-4 

.1449* 

7.82 

144.6 

I9I3 

54 

.1489 

8.04 

130.0 

.1490 

8.05 

148.9 

I9I4 

54 

.151 

8.15 

131-7 

.150 

8.10 

149.8 

I915 

No  data 

I916 

54 

.188 

10.15 

164. 1 

.182 

9-83 

181.8 

FULL  TIME   EARNINGS,    189O-1916 


67 


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FULL    TIME    EARNINGS,    189O-I916 


69 


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70 


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FULL    IIME   EARNINGS,    189O-I916 


71 


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72 


wa(;es  in  cotton  manufactures 
CHART   VI 


The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the   Massachusetts   Cotton 
Industry,  1890-19 1 6 

Base  (100)  =  averages  of  quotations  for  1 890-1 899 


-Card  strippers,  male Frame  spinners,  female 

.  Loom  fixers,  male         — x — x  Weavers,  female 
... — ... —  Weavers,  male 


1     1     1 

1    r   I   T 

I   r   1   1    i    1 

1   I-  r 

III! 

1      1     II     11      1 

- 

- 

-240 

240- 

- 

- 

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220- 

- 

- 

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200- 

- 

- 

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-160 

/ 
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160- 

-140 

140- 

-120 

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20- 

FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    189O-I916 
CHART    VII 


73 


The  Movement  of  Full  Time  Earnings  in  the  Maine  Cotton  Industry, 

1 890-19 1 6 

Base  (100)  =  averages  of  rjuotations  for  1890-1899 


.  Card  strippers,  male Frame  spinners,  female 

.Loom  fixers,  male     — x — x —  Weavers,  female 
. ...  Weavers,  male 


-     1      1      1      1      1      1      1 

1        1         1        1        1        1        1        I        1        1         1        1        1        1        1        1        1 

1   1 

1 

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V  ' 

240- 

- 

- 

-220 

/ 

220- 

- 

/ 

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/ 

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-180 
-160 
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20- 

74  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

CHART    VIII 

The  Movement  of   Full  Time   Earnings  in   the  Rhode  Island  Cotton 
Industry,  1890-1916 

Base  (100)  =  averages  of  quotations  for  1890-1899 


-Card  strippers,  male Frame  spinners,  female 

.Loom  fixers,  male     — x — x —  Weavers,  female 
. Weavers,  male 


1     I    ]     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I     I 


/ 
/ 
/ 


-300 
-280 


'  ^  /   \  / 


-360  / 

/ 

/ 

■«40  / 

-220 

-«00 

-180 

-160 

-140 

.120 

-100 

80 

-60 

-40 

-  20  o  A  o 

•^  o»  <n  o 

00  <D  0> 


thai^^^al^ 


'•^m,^ 


J_J. 


riTlilirilliVllllliilIlT 


If  we  examine  separately  the  charts  for  Massachusetts,  Maine 
and  Rhode  Island,  it  is  apparent  that  in  each  of  these  states  the 
movements  of  full  time  earnings  in  all  of  the  occupational 
groups  have  been  quite  similar.     However,  the  chart  represent- 


FULL  TIME   EARNINGS,    1890-1916  75 

ing  the  conditions  in  the  Massachusetts  section  of  the  industry- 
exhibits  by  far  the  greatest  amount  of  correlation  between  the 
different  occupational  series.  From  1891  to  1907  this  corre- 
lation is  very  marked,  while  after  the  latter  year  the  only  curve 
which  diverges  considerably  from  what  may  be  called  the 
normal  course  is  that  for  female  frame  spinners.  This  diver- 
gence seems  to  be  due  to  some  change  which  occurred  about 
1907,  placing  the  female  frame  spinners  in  that  year  at  a  level 
considerably  higher  relatively,  than  the  other  workers.  The 
relative  heights  of  the  occupational  series  established  in  1907 
were  maintained  approximately  through  the  remaining  years 
of  the  period,  the  general  direction  of  movement  for  frame 
spinners  corresponding  quite  closely  with  the  movements  of 
earnings  of  the  operative  groups. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  charts  for  Maine  and  Rhode  Island 
show  a  greater  scattering  of  the  occupational  earnings  curves, 
and  that  there  is  apparent  in  these  cases  a  much  less  amount 
of  correlation  between  the  occupational  series  of  full  time 
earnings  quotations,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  there  is  to  be 
observed  in  each  of  these  charts  a  common  tendency  of  the 
wage  movements  of  the  occupational  groups.  In  each  of  these 
cases,  as  in  the  Massachusetts  case,  it  is  the  female  frame 
spinners  who  appear  to  have  departed  from  the  path  of  com- 
mon progress.  On  the  whole  the  evidence  presented  by  these 
charts  seems  to  add  to  the  plausibility  of  the  theory  that  not 
only  have  changes  of  rates  of  wages  at  Fall  River  been  shared 
equally  by  all  the  occupational  groups  in  that  city  but  such 
standardization  has  to  a  considerable  degree  come  to  pervade 
the  whole  industry,  being  most  highly  developed  in  Massachu- 
setts, and  much  less  developed  in  Maine  and  Rhode  Island. 

Aside  from  giving  some  indication  as  to  the  direction  of 
changes  of  full  time  earnings  and  as  to  the  standardization  of 
wage  movements  as  between  occupational  groups,  the  materials 
of  Tables  XII,  XIII,  and  XIV  throw  some  light  on  the  rela- 
tionship between  legislation  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  and 
the  earnings  of  the  operatives.  First,  let  us  examine  in  some 
detail  the   effects  of  legislation  in  Massachusetts  reducing  the 


76  WAGES    IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

hours  of  labor  per  week  for  women  and  minors  from  sixty  to 
fifty-eight,  from  fifty-eight  to  fifty-six,  and  from  fifty-six  to 
fifty-four. 

In  1 89 1  card  strippers  at  an  average  hourly  earning  of 
$.1035,  working  sixty  hours  per  week,  received  $6.21  for  the 
week's  work.  Working  an  average  week  of  fifty-nine  hours 
the  following  year  at  an  hourly  earning  of  $.1057  the  weekly 
pay  envelope  showed  a  gain  of  $.03,  while  the  next  year,  the 
first  in  which  the  fifty-eight  hour  week  prevailed  exclusively, 
with  an  hourly  earning  of  $.1089  the  weekly  earnings  reached 
$6.31.  But  declining  hourly  earnings  in  1894  and  1895  reduced 
the  weekly  amounts  below  the  level  of  1891  and  not  until  1900 
did  the  amount  of  the  weekly  earnings  rise  to  the  level  of  1891 
not  to  fall  back  again  during  the  period  of  our  study.  Similarly 
the  year  1900  marks  the  permanent  establishment  of  weekly 
earnings  at  or  above  the  level  of  weekly  earnings  prevailing  in 
1 891  for  each  of  the  other  occupational  groups  studied.  Of 
course  such  a  long  period  of  readjustment  reflects  the  uncer- 
tain trade  conditions  and  changing  piece  rates  of  the  decade, 
and  it  is  probable  that  this  long  period  of  fluctuating  weekly 
earnings  is  not  representative  of  the  normal  effects  of  legisla- 
tion decreasing  the  hours  of  labor. 

Again  taking  the  Massachusetts  card  strippers  for  an 
example,  note  the  effects  of  the  fifty-eight  and  fifty-six  hour 
laws  which  became  operative  January  i,  1910  and  January  i, 
1912,  respectively.  In  1909  at  an  hourly  earning  of  $.1262, 
working  fifty-eight  hours,  these  men  earned  $7.32  per  week. 
In  both  1910  and  191 1  the  hourly  earnings  were  greater  than 
in  1909,  but  not  sufficiently  so  to  compensate  for  the  reduction 
of  hours  to  fifty-six,  so  that  in  these  years  the  weekly  earnings 
were  less  than  in  1909.  When  the  fifty-four  hour  law  went 
into  force  labor  agitation  throughout  Massachusetts,  of  which 
the  strike  at  Lawrence  was  the  most  violent  and  determining, 
caused  advances  of  wages  which  brought  increases  of  hourly 
earnings  sufficient  to  raise  the  weekly  earnings  above  the  level 
of  1909.  What  happened  in  the  case  of  the  card  strippers 
happened  also  in  the  cases  of  the  other  workers  with  the  excep- 


FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    189O-1916  77 

tion  of  the  female  frame  spinners,  whose  peculiar  position 
since  1907  we  have  already  noted.  Their  hourly  earnings  in 
1910  and  191 1  were  so  considerably  greater  than  in  1909  as  to 
counteract  the  influence  of  the  restrictive  legislation. 

A  similar  result  followed  the  restriction  of  the  hours  of  labor 
in  Maine  in  1910.  All  that  has  just  been  stated  to  have  hap- 
pened in  Massachusetts  with  regard  to  the  course  of  weekly 
earnings  happened  in  Maine,  except  that  the  loom  fixers  and 
the  male  weavers  recovered  their  earning  powers  under  the 
new  conditions  by  1911. 

An  examination  along  the  same  lines  of  the  conditions  of 
the  operatives  in  Rhode  Island  shows  that  the  legislation  of 
1902  caused  no  unfavorable  movement  of  the  curve  of  weekly 
earnings  as  compared  with  the  level  of  1901,  with  the  exception 
that  the  male  weavers  appear  from  the  table  to  have  received 
in  1904  less  per  week  than  in  1901.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether 
this  item  in  the  table  shows  a  result  of  labor  legislation.  Rather 
it  appears  that  the  marked  but  temporary  decrease  of  weekly 
earnings  was  due  to  a  similar  decrease  of  the  hourly  earnings. 
In  explanation  of  the  general  rise  of  weekly  earnings  following 
reduction  of  hours  is  suggested  the  marked  increase  of  the 
hourly  earnings  which  began  in  1902  and  which  is  probably  a 
reflection  of  the  changes  of  rates  which  are  known  to  have 
occurred  in  1902,  if  we  assume  the  Fall  River  conditions  to  be 
typical  of  the  industry.  This  assumption  is  the  more  reason- 
able in  view  of  the  proximity  of  the  Rhode  Island  mills  to  Fall 
River.  This  reduction  of  hours  in  Rhode  Island  occurred  at  a 
time  most  favorable  to  assuring  beneficial  results  to  the  workers. 
The  uncertain  conditions  of  the  panic  of  1893,  the  depression 
of  1894  and  1895,  the  political  campaign  of  1896,  and  the  war 
conditions  of  1898  were  at  an  end  and  business  in  general  was 
on  the  road  to  prosperity. 

The  Rhode  Island  legislation  of  1909  which  took  effect  in 
January,  1910,  caused  changes  in  the  weekly  earnings  remark- 
ably similar  to  those  caused  by  the  contemporary  reductions 
of  hours  in  Massachusetts  and  Maine.  The  female  frame 
spinners  suffered   no   reduction  of  weekly   earnings,   the  card 


78  WAGES    IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

Strippers  and  loom  fixers  did  not  receive  weekly  earnings 
equal  to  those  of  1909  until  1912,  while  the  male  weavers  did 
not  experience  a  restoration  of  earnings  until  1914,  the  fifty- 
four  hour  law  becoming  effective  in  the  meantime.  The  female 
weavers,  according  to  the  table,  received  a  marked  advance  of 
weekly  pay  in  1910,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the  figures  for  this 
year  are  typical  of  conditions  in  the  industry.  The  hourly 
earnings  reported  by  overlapping  bulletins  of  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  were  $.1950  and  $.2382,  of  which  the  average,  used  in 
the  present  tables,  is  $.2166.  Even  the  lower  figure  of  the 
original  exhibits  would  give  a  weekly  earning  of  $10.92,  an 
amount  greater  than  that  received  in  any  other  year  preceding. 
If,  then,  we  ignore  the  figures  for  1910,  the  female  weavers, 
like  the  male  weavers,  had  to  wait  until  1914  for  a  restoration 
of  their  earnings  to  the  level  of  1909.  The  legislation  of  1913 
appears  to  have  affected  the  weekly  earnings  of  the  different 
occupational  groups  in  no  uniform  manner. 

In  the  preceding  parts  of  this  study  of  the  movement  of  full 
time  earnings  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  ascertain  the  facts 
relating  to  the  operative  force  as  a  whole  or  to  certain  sex  or 
occupational  groups.  Wage  movements  have  been  represented 
graphically  as  line  movements,  the  assumption  being  that 
changes  of  rates  of  wages  have  affected  all  mill  employees  in  a 
substantially  uniform  measure.  Such  an  analysis  as  the  fore- 
going, in  so  far  as  it  must  be  based  upon  data  of  a  somewhat 
fragmentary  nature,  can  be  well  supplemented  by  the  study  of 
the  distribution  of  workers  in  different  wage  groups.  The  data 
available  for  such  a  study  are  unusually  abundant  and  adequate. 

For  the  period  since  and  including  1889  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  of  Statistics  has  collected  from  manufacturers  through- 
out that  state  returns  of  a  very  complete  and  detailed  nature, 
showing  among  other  facts  the  wage  classification  at  a  certain 
time  of  each  year  of  all  their  employees  other  than  clerks  and 
salaried  officers.  For  the  purpose  of  the  present  study  these 
published  summaries  relating  to  the  cotton  manufacturing 
industry  have  been  rearranged  to  secure  uniformity  in  the 
groupings  throughout  the  entire  period,  and  all  absolute  figures 


FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    189O-1916  79 

have  been  converted  into  percentage  figures,  so  that  there 
might  be  made  a  comparison  of  the  distribution  of  employees 
from  year  to  year.  The  results  of  this  work  of  revision  and 
analysis  are  presented  in  Table  XV  and  Chart  IX.' 


I.  For  the  years  from  1889  to  1905  for  the  materials  of  this  table,  and  for  the 
years  from  1886  to  1905  for  the  materials  of  Tables  XVI,  X\TI,  and  XVIII  in  Chapter 
V,  double  reports  were  prepared  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics.  The 
nature  of  these  double  reports  should  be  explained  here  once  for  all,  but  can  be  done 
best  by  reference  to  Table  X\TI.  If  the  reader  will  turn  to  this  table  he  will  obser\e 
that  the  Massachusetts  Statistics  of  Manufactures  dated  1894  contained  data  for  148 
cotton  manufacturing  establishments  which  replied  to  the  inquiries  of  the  Bureau  of 
Statistics  for  information  regarding  conditions  in  both  1893  and  1894.  In  1895  nine 
more  establishments  than  in  the  preceding  year  gave  information  concerning  conditions 
in  1894  and  1S95.  Thus  there  are  two  reports  for  1894,  the  one  covering  148 
establishments,  and  the  other  157  establishments.  In  no  cases  have  there  been  found 
serious  discrepancies  between  the  reports  covering  any  one  year.  In  Table  X\'  for 
the  years  for  which  double  reports  exist  averages  of  these  figures  are  shown. 

The  report  on  the  Statistics  of  Manufactures  for  the  year  1909  does  not  give  any 
information  regarding  the  distribution  of  employees  in  wage  groups. 


80 


WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


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tJ-nO    pO  i^  ■»J-  O  no 

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On  O   1-    N    ro  Tj-  u-ikO    t^OO   On  Q   '-'   N    m  ■*  winO   t^OO    On  O    "-    N    ro  rt  mN£) 
OOOnOnOnOnOnOnOnOnOnOnOOOOOOOOOO'-'-i---"-'-" 
0000000000000000000000   ono^ononononononononononono^ononon 

1 

FULL   TIME   EARNINGS,    1890-1916  81 


CHART  a 

THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  EliPLOTEES 
Par  Ct.     IN  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  COTTON  INDUSTRY,  1889-1916        Par  CI 
6 —  ON  THE  BASIS  OF  WEEKLY  EARNINGS  5 


0 _  » 


0 

i5 —  t30.00   AND  OVER  _i5 

_10 

5 

_    0 


10  _ 
6_ 

I15.00-S19.99 

ao_  I         _ao 

«-  I  -15 

10_ 

6_ 

0_ 


-10 
_    5 
_    0 
tl3.00-tl4.99 

*^ —  _  _35 

aO-  I  -,30 

-15 
.10 
.  5 
-  0 
$10.00-111.99 

1E ■■ ■-■Illiilll  lllllll    =1 

30 —  $9.00-89.99  2C 

15. 
10. 


1= ■■iiiiiiiiimmlll  lllllll  E  ^ 

30_  {a.C0-j8.&9  _20 

fi?    00—  fi?    99 

l^llllllllllllliilliii  lilt...  =i 

20 —  J6. 00-16. 99  —20 

i=milllllllniiiii.i  I g; 

30 —  t5.C0-j5.99  —30 

lllliiliiiliiiiiiii i 

UNDER    fS.OO 


82  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

In  Chart  IX  there  is  strong  corroborative  evidence  of  the 
upward  movement  of  full  time  earnings  which  has  appeared  in 
the  tables  and  charts  presented  heretofore.  While  in  1889 
about  27  per  cent  of  the  cotton  textile  operatives  in  Massachu- 
setts received  at  the  date  of  the  filing  of  the  returns  less  than 
$5  per  week,  in  191 6  the  same  wage  group  composed  less  than 
I  per  cent  of  the  operative  force.  And,  to  illustrate  by  refer- 
ence to  one  of  the  wage  groups  higher  in  the  scale,  those 
rece.iving  between  $15.00  and  $19.99  per  week  grew  from 
being  slightly  over  i  per  cent  of  the  whole  force  in  1889  to 
over  13   per  cent  in  1916. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  general  trend  of  the  perpendicular 
blocks  representing  the  several  groups  at  different  dates.  The 
three  lowest  groups  with  almost  entire  consistency  throughout 
the  period  studied  show  steadily  decreasing  relative  numbers 
(that  is,  percentage  composition  of  the  whole  group  of  workers). 
While  the  seven  remaining  groups  show  fairly  consistent  and 
steady  growth  for  nearly  all  of  the  period.  In  the  groups  which 
include  operatives  receiving  weekly  wages  of  $7.00  to  $9.99 
there  is  clearly  apparent  the  effect  of  the  upward  trend  of  wages 
under  war  conditions,  since  in  these  latest  years  of  the  period 
the  tendency  of  the  size  of  these  groups  is  markedly  downward. 
Note  carefully  that  the  increases  and  decreases  in  size  of  these 
middle  groups  are  by  no  means  as  pronounced  as  those  of  the 
crroups  at  either  extreme.  Evidently  there  has  been  no  very 
great  difference  in  the  degrees  of  rapidity  with  which  workers 
of  all  classes  have  shifted  from  one  group  to  the  next  higher. 
What  appears  here  is  valuable  as  throwing  light  upon  the 
assumption  of  approximately  equal  distribution  among  the 
workers  of  gains  and  losses  resulting  from  wage  advances  and 
reductions.  If  there  appears  here  anything  in  modification  of 
this  general  assumption,  it  is  that  in  periods  of  marked  upward 
changes  of  rates,  those  who  have  been  the  lower  paid  have 
received  the  greater  real  gains,  a  phenomenon  which  has 
appeared  in  the  chapter  analyzing  changes  of  earnings  between 
i860  and  1890.  At  any  rate,  all  the  materials  studied  evidence 
quite  strongly  a  marked  and  rather  steady  increase  of  full  time 
money  earnings  in  the  Massachusetts  section  of  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industry  since  1890. 


FLUCTUATIONS    OF   EMPLOYMENT  83 


CHAPTER    V 

FLUCTUATIONS    OF   EMPLOYMENT 

In  the  immediately  preceding  chapters  deah'ng  with  the  move- 
ment of  full  time  earnings  there  has  been  a  tacit,  necessary  and 
temporary  assumption  that  the  wage  quotations  of  the  original 
exhibits  used  have  been  at  least  approximately  representative 
of  conditions  in  the  several  years  of  the  periods  studied.  In 
the  use  of  the  available  materials  there  has  been  no  systematic 
or  deliberate  attempt  to  make  allowance  for  fluctuations  of 
employment,  and  it  is  to  the  facts  concerning  this  aspect  of  the 
wage  situation  that  we  next  turn.  Clearly  it  is  a  matter  of  con- 
siderable concern  to  the  cotton  mill  employee  that  not  only 
shall  the  rate  of  wages  per  piece  or  per  hour  be  satisfactor}', 
but  also  that  he  shall  receive  his  wage  with  some  degree  of 
regularity  from  season  to  season  and  from  year  to  year. 

So  far  as  concerns  the  effects  of  unemployment  upon  wages 
and  their  movements,  our  problem  has  two  phases:  first,  that 
which  concerns  an}'  fairly  regular  seasonal  fluctuations  that 
may  exist,  and,  second,  that  which  concerns  the  extent  of  con- 
ditions of  unemployment  at  whatever  times  and  with  whatever 
regularity  or  irregularity  they  may  occur.      ' 

For  the  study  of  the  first  phase  of  the  unemployment  problem 
in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry,  the  best  single  source  of 
information  consists  of  the  series  of  reports  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Statistics  on  the  Statistics  of  Manufactures, 
especially  that  part  of  each  volume  of  this  series  which  indi- 
cates the  numbers  of  workers  reported  as  employed  each  month 
by  the  establishments  covered.  For  example,  in  the  report  for 
191 6,  returns  from  170  cotton  manufacturing  establishments 
showed  an  average  number  of  employees  for  the  year  of 
1 14,800,  the  monthly  figures  ranging  from    113,000  in  August 


84 


WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


to  I  16,600  in  November.  In  order  to  make  comparative  use 
of  these  and  similar  figures  covering  other  years,  the  absolute 
monthly  and  annual  av'erage  figures  have  been  converted  into 


TABLE  XVI 

Fluctuations  of  Employment  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton  Industry, 

1889-1916 

The  per  cents,  which  the  monthly  rolls  of  employees  were  of  the  average  for  each  year.i 


3 
c 

•— > 

>> 

a 

3 

U 

u 
15 

a, 

< 

V 

c 

3 
•-> 

1— > 

3 

3 
< 

V 

S 

V 

V 

c 

V 

.a 
0 
u 
0 

u 

B 

V 
0 

7, 

.0 

£ 

0 

1889 

99-5 

99.8 

98.5 

100. 0 

100. 1 

lOO.O 

lOO.O 

100. I 

100. 1 

100.5 

100.6 

100.6 

1890 

99-3 

100. 1 

99-3 

100.3 

100. 0 

100. 0;  98.8 

99.2 

100. 0  100.7 

100.9  100.9 

I89I 

100.5 

100.5 

100.4 

100. 0 

99-5 

99-4  99-4 

99.1 

99.4  100.3 

100.8  100.8 

1892 

98.9 

100.3 

100.4 

100.7 

100.5 

99-8  99.4 

99-3 

99-6 

99-8 

IOI.2  100.8 

1893 

101.9 

103. 1 

102.9 

104.3 

104.4 

103.9  103.6 

89.0 

81.0 

98.7 

loo.o  99.4 

1894 

105.2 

105.0 

104.2 

103-7 

103-5 

103. 1  98.1 

86.9 

79-3 

99-5 

105.6 

106.7 

1895 

100.4 

100.4 

100.8 

100.7 

100.6 

100.4  98- 1 

97-4 

99-5 

99-6 

lOI.I 

lOI.I 

1896 

103.0 

103.8 

104.3 

103.0 

102.7 

102.0  96.3 

86.1 

92.1  100.7 

102.4 

104.3 

1897 

103.4 

100. 0 

lOI.O 

lOI.O 

101.5 

99-8 

96.3 

90-5 

100.9  102.2 

102.5 

101.4 

1898 

98.9 

93-1 

94.4 

98.4 

99.8 

102. 1 

100.9 

100.9 

lOI.I 

103-7 

I03-3 

104.0 

1899 

99.0 

99.2 

99.8 

100.7 

100.0 

100. ol  99.8 

99-0 

100. 1 

99.6 

loi.o  102.4 

1900 

99.8 

100.3 

101.6 

100.6 

100.5 

lOI.O 

99.6 

97-5 

97-8 

99-6 

100.7 

101.3 

I9OI 

101.9 

101.8 

101.9 

95-4 

98.0 

98-3 

97.0 

98.6 

99.0 

100.4 

104.2 

103-5 

1902 

99.8 

99-7 

101.4 

100. 0 

101.2 

99-6 

99.01  99.0 

98-7 

100.6 

IOI.7 

100.7 

1903 

104.2 

104.8 

103.9 

92.0 

91.4 

100.2 

99-7 

98.1 

97-9 

102.4 

102.8 

102.7 

1904 

108. 1 

108. 1 

107.8 

106.9 

105-5 

102.8 

99-2 

84.1 

84.2 

94-3 

97-9 

101.5 

1905 

97-3 

99.9  100.8 

102. 1 

101.8 

101.4 

101.2 

101.2 

101.8 

96.1 

97-7 

99.4 

1906 

99.9 

100. 1  100.5 

100. 1 

100. 0 

99.8 

99-5 

98-7 

99-1 

100.5 

101.4 

100.4 

1907 

99.6 

100. 0  100.5 

100.2 

100.2 

TOO. 2 

100. 0 

99.0 

100.2 

100.8 

100.4 

98.4 

1908 

101.4 

99-3 

96.2 

90-9 

91.0 

99-3 

95-4 

96.2 

101.2 

108.0 

no. I 

1 10.6 

1909 

97-9 

98.4 

99-7 

99-7 

99-9 

90.6 

100.3 

lOO.O 

101.2 

100.7 

100.7 

101.7 

I9IO 

101.7 

101.7 

100.9 

100.6 

100.8 

100.2 

95.6 

96.4 

97-4 

101.4 

102.4 

102.8 

I9II 

102.3 

101.8  102.6 

102.4 

100.6 

97-5 

97.0 

94.1 

95.2 

lOI.I 

102.4 

103. 1 

1912 

99-5 

98.7 

100.4 

96.1 

101.4 

101.5 

98-5 

94-3 

99-9 

102.5 

103-7 

104.1 

I9I3 

101.8 

101.8 

102.4 

101.6 

99.1 

97-1 

96-7 

94.9 

99.9 

lOI.I 

!OI.8 

101.8 

I9I4 

104.4 

103-7 

103.4 

103.2 

101.7 

100.4 

98.2 

95-9 

96.4 

97-2 

97-9 

97-4 

I9I5 

96.7 

97.8 

99-3 

99-7 

99.6 

100. 1 

99.6 

99-0 

99-6 

102.2 

103.1 

103.1 

I9I6 

100. 1 

100.2 

100.6 

100.2 

99.9 

99-6 

98.6 

98-4 

99.0 

100.2 

101.5 

101.6 

Average 

for  28 

lOI.O 

100.8 

lOI.I 

100.2 

100. 1 

100.3 

98.8 

96.2 

97.2 

100.5 

101.8 

102.0 

years 

1.  As  in  the  case  of  Table  XV  the  figures  presented  are  average  figures  wherever  two 
reports  were  published  covering  one  year.  The  smallest  base  (100  per  cent.)  is  that  for  1889 
when  the  average  number  of  employees  for  the  year  as  reported  in  1889  for  13ti  establishments 
was  6'>,400;  as  reported  in  1890,  for  1889,  for  1.57  establishments  was  68,700.  The  largest  base 
was  114,900  employees  representing  167  establishments  in  1913. 


FLUCTUATIONS    OK   EMPLOYMENT 


85 


relative  or  percentage  figures,  the  base  (iQO)  for  each  year 
being  the  average  number  of  employees  reported  by  all  the 
establishments  for  that  year.  The  results  of  this  process  of 
conversion  are  presented  in  detail  in  Table  XVI.  A  graphic 
representation  of  the  course  of  employment  in  the  Massachu- 
setts cotton  manufacturing  industry  from  1889  to  1916,  using 


TABLE  XVII 

Unemployment    in    the   Massachusetts    Cotton    Industry,     1886-19 16 

The  Deviation  from  the  Monthly  Average  Number  of  Employees 
(From  the  Massachusetts  Statistics  of  Manufactures  and  Fable  XVT  of  this  monograph  ) 


Per  cent,  which 

Per  cent,  which 

Per  cent,  which 

Year. 

lowest  monthly 

highest  roll 

difference  between 

roll  is  of  the 

is  of  the 

these  is  of  the 

average. 

average. 

average. 

1886 

93-3 

104.5 

10.7 

1887 

96.1 

103.6 

7-5 

1888 

93-1 

103.8 

10.7 

1889 

98.5 

100.6 

2.1 

1890 

98-8 

100.9 

2.1 

189I 

99.1 

100.8 

1-7 

1892 

98.9 

100.8 

1-9 

1893 

81.0 

104.4 

23-4 

1894 

79-3 

106.7 

27.4 

1895 

97-4 

lOI.I 

3-7 

189O 

86.1 

104.3 

18.2 

1897 

90.5 

103.4 

12.9 

1898 

93-1 

104.0 

10.9 

1899 

99.0 

102.4 

3-4 

1900 

97-5 

IOI.7 

4.2 

190I 

95-4 

104.2 

8.8 

1902 

98.7 

IOI.7 

3-0 

1903 

91.4 

104.8 

'3-4 

1904 

84.1 

108. 1 

24.0 

1905 

96.1 

IOI.8 

5-7 

1906 

98.7 

101.4 

2.7 

1907 

98.4 

100.8 

2.4 

1908 

90.9 

1 10.6 

19.7 

1909 

97-9 

101.7 

3-8 

I910 

95.6 

102.8 

7-2 

I9II 

94.1 

103. 1 

9.0 

1912 

94-3 

104. 1 

9.8 

I913 

94.9 

102.4 

7-5 

1914 

95-9 

104.4 

8.5 

I915 

96.7 

103. 1 

6.4 

1916 

98.4 

101.6 

3-2 

80 


WAC.ES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


FLUCTUATIONS    OF   EMPLOYMENT  H7 

this  method  of  a  changing  base,  is  given  in  the  upper  portion 
of  the  truncated  Chart  X. 

The  fact  which  appears  most  clearly  in  the  table  and  in  the 
portion  of  Chart  X  referred  to  is  that  in  the  Massachusetts 
section  of  the  industry  there  has  been  little  seasonal  swing  of 
employment.  The  only  approximation  to  such  a  swing  is  the 
slight  tendency  toward  curtailment  of  production  in  July  and 
August  when  the  mills  are  waiting  for  the  marketing  of  the 
new  crop  of  raw  cotton  and  are  apt  to  proceed  cautiously  in 
their  buying  operations.  We  may,  therefore,  omit  further  con- 
sideration of  this  phase  of  the  unemployment  problem,  and 
devote  attention  to  the  second  phase,  that  of  measuring  the 
unemployment  that  has  occurred  irregularly  and  at  times  on  a 
very  considerable  scale. 

There  are  two  methods  of  making  such  a  measurement.  The 
one  uses  the  statistical  data  just  described  and  is  in  terms  of 
of  variations  within  each  year  of  the  numbers  of  operatives  on 
the  pay  rolls  of  the  reporting  mills.  The  other  is  in  terms  of 
the  operating  time  of  the  mills.  Let  us  first  give  attention  to 
the  former. 

Referring  again  to  Table  XVI  and  to  the  upper  portion  of 
Chart  X  and  also  to  Table  XVII,  it  appears  that  in  1916  the 
total  deviation  of  the  operative  force  from  the  average  of  the 
monthly  figures  constituted  3.2  per  cent,  of  this  average.  That 
is  to  say,  in  1916  the  number  of  cotton  mill  operatives  who  at 
any  date  covered  by  the  monthly  figures  were  unemployed 
constituted  3.2  per  cent,  of  the  average  number  of  individuals 
employed  in  the  industry  that  year.  Applying  the  same 
method  of  computation  to  the  available  statistical  information 
for  the  other  years  of  the  period  1886-19 16,  we  have  the 
figures  of  the  last  column  of  Table  XVII  and  on  Chart  X  the 
solid  line  curve  of  the  portion  below  the  lines  of  truncation. 
On  this  curve  the  locations  of  the  circles  indicate  for  the  several 
years  the  total  deviation  from  the  average  of  employment.  To 
connect  in  meaning  the  upper  and  lower  portions  of  Chart  X, 
the  perpendicular  distance  from  any  one  of  the  circles  on  the 
solid  line  curve  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  chart  to  the  zero 


88  WAGES    IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

line  equals  the  perpendicular  distance  from  the  lowest  point  in 
the  upper  curve  to  the  highest  point  in  the  same  curve  for  the 
year  in  question. 

\]y  this  method  of  computing  the  fluctuations  of  conditions 
of  unemployment  it  appears  that  in  the  period  of  thirty-one 
years  covered  by  Table  XYH  the  average  deviation  from  the 
normal  amount  of  employment  per  year  has  been  8.9  per  cent. 
But  since  the  distribution  of  this  idleness  has  been  so  uneven 
in  point  of  time,  this  average  figure  has  little  significance. 
Certain  years,  as  1886,  1888,  1893,  1894,  1896-1898,  1903, 
1904  and  1908,  stand  out  preeminently  as  years  of  unusual 
hardship,  the  deviation  being  in  each  of  these  years  at  least 
10  per  cent,  and  going  well  over  20  per  cent,  in  1893,  1894, 
and   1904  (the  last  named  being  a  strike  year). 

But  it  must  be  emphasized  that  the  estimate  just  made  is  in 
terms  of  one  dimension;  that  is,  in  terms  of  the  numbers  of 
persons  on  the  pay  rolls  at  different  times.  In  this  estimate 
there  is  no  allowance  made  for  a  second  dimension  which 
concerns  the  duration  of  unemployment. 

For  this  phase  of  the  problem  again  the  best  available  infor- 
mation is  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Statistics  of  Manufactures, 
which  show  the  average  operating  time  of  all  the  establishments 
reporting  each  year.  By  converting  the  information  contained 
in  these  reports,  whether  originally  given  in  terms  of  days  or 
of  weeks,  to  percentage  figures,  considering  the  normal  working 
year  to  consist  of  51  weeks  of  6  days,  or  306  days,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  make  a  comparative  analysis  of  the  idle  time  of  the 
mills  in  successive  years.  The  results  of  this  process  of  con- 
version are  shown  in  Table  XVIII  and  by  the  broken  or  dash 
curve  of  the  lower  portion  of  Chart  X. 

It  appears  that  the  average  amount  of  idle  time  per  year  for 
the  period  under  study  was  slightly  less  than  4.5  per  cent,  of 
the  normal  working  year.  By  this  method  of  calculation,  it 
seems,  the  hardships  of  unemployment  are  minimized.  But  it 
is  quite  significant  that  with  respect  to  relative  conditions 
prevailing  in  different  years  there  is  substantial  agreement  of 
the  results  of  the  two  methods  of  unemployment  measurement. 


FLUCTUATIONS  OF  EMPLOYMENT 


89 


The  years  in  which  the  greatest  idleness  existed  as  shown  by 
the  first  calculation  are  likewise  the  years  of  greatest  idleness 
as  shown  by  the  second. 

Beyond   this   point   in   the   analysis   it   is   unsafe   to  proceed. 
There  is  not  available  the  material  which  would  make  possible 


TABLE  XVIII 

Unemployment  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton  Industry,  1 886-1916 

The  Operating  Time  of  the  Mills 

(From  the  Massachusetts  Statistics  of  Manufactures) 


Time  in  Operation. 

Per  cent,  of 

Per  Cent,  of 

Year. 

(Days) 

Working  Year 
in  Operation. 

Working   Year 
Idfe. 

1886 

301.56 

98.55 

1-45 

1887 

302.34 

98.80 

1.20 

1888 

302.64 

98.90 

1. 10 

1889 

300.13 

98.09 

I.91 

1890 

296.62 

96.94 

3.06 

1891 

308.49 

100.80 

—0.80 

1892 

304-83 

99.62 

0.38 

1893 

281.99 

92.15 

7-85 

1894 

272.91 

89.19 

10.81 

1895 

297.15 

97.11 

2.89 

1896 

279-73 

91.41 

8.59 

1897 

285.83 

93-41 

6.59 

1898 

293-05 

95.76 

4.24 

1899 

302.02 

98.70 

1.30 

1900 

299.06 

97-73 

2.27 

1901 

296.66 

96.95 

3-os 

1902 

302.66 

98.91 

1.09 

1903 

290.49 

94-94 

5.06 

1904 

280.08 

91-53 

8.47 

1905 

295.46 

96.56 

3-44 

1906 

303-56 

99.20 

0.80 

1907 

300.62 

98.24 

1.76 

1908 

269.62 

88.11 

11.89 

1909 

299.50 

97.88 

2.12 

1910 

280.80 

91.76 

8.24 

I911 

275.7 

90.10 

9.90 

1912 

284.9 

93-'o 

6.90 

1913 

289.S 

94.61 

5-39 

1914 

288.5 

94.28 

5-72 

1915 

282.8 

92.42 

7.58 

1916 

294-3 

96.18 

3-82 

The  figures  for  the  years  1887-1906  are  averages  of  double  returns, 
punying  Tables  XV  and  XVI, 


Si-e  the   notes   accom 


90  WAGES   IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 

in  this  case  a  more  exact  estimation  of  the  extent  of  unemploy- 
ment and  of  its  effects  upon  the  earnings  of  operatives.  For  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  two  phases  of  the  problem  indi- 
cated by  the  two  methods  of  measurement  used  above  are  not 
mutually  exclusive.  There  is  no  clear  separation  in  the  returns 
published  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  the 
results  of  the  different  methods  of  production  curtailment  — 
short  time  operation  of  whole  establishments  with  no  discharge 
of  operatives,  and  partial  discharge  of  the  operative  force.  It 
is  possible  that  the  greater  proximity  to  each  other  of  the 
curves  in  the  lower  portion  of  Chart  X  in  the  later  years  of  the 
period  than  in  the  earlier  years  is  indicative  of  a  growing 
custom  of  systematic  curtailment  of  production,  when  such 
curtailment  is  necessary,  by  part  time  operation  with  few  dis- 
charges of  employees.  On  this  point  there  is  avaible  no  con- 
clusive evidence. 

No  attempt  is  made,  therefore,  in  view  of  the  nature  of  the 
information  available,  to  compute  a  series  of  discounts  to  be 
applied  to  the  figures  showing  relative  full  time  earnings  with 
a  view  to  finding  exact  relative  actual  earnings.  The  signifi- 
cant facts  which  it  is  intended  that  the  materials  of  this  chapter 
shall  emphasize  are,  first,  that  unemployment  in  the  cotton 
manufacturing  industry  has  been  to  no  considerable  extent 
regular  and  seasonal  and  thus  possible  of  anticipation  by 
prudent  workers,  and  second,  that  when  unemployment  has 
come  thus  irregularly  it  has  been,  at  times,  on  a  scale  so  great 
as  to  affect  very  seriously  the  yearly  earnings  of  the  employees. 


CONCLUSIONS  91 


CHAPTER   VI 

CONCLUSIONS 

By  way  of  conclusion  there  remains  a  three-fold  task  :  first, 
to  piece  together  the  information  relating  to  the  movement  of 
full  time  earnings  in  the  different  historical  periods  separately 
studied,  thereby  to  construct  one  curve  of  wage  movement  for 
the  entire  period  since  i860;  second,  to  compare  this  move- 
ment of  earnings  with  changes  in  general  prices,  in  order  to 
form  an  opinion  as  to  the  changes  of  real  as  opposed  to  money 
earnings;  and  third,  to  compare  changes  of  rates  of  wages 
with  the  changes  of  full  time  earnings,  to  see  whether  changes 
in  manufacturing  technique  have  exerted  a  favorable  or  unfav- 
orable influence  upon  operatives'  earnings. 

First  comes  the  task  of  constructing  a  single  curve  repre- 
sentative of  the  movement  of  full  time  earnings  since  i860. 
Because  of  the  nature  of  the  statistical  materials  available  for 
study  such  a  summary  curve  must  relate  only  to  the  changes 
of  conditions  in  the  Massachusetts  section  of  the  cotton  manu- 
facturing industry.  So  that  the  task  in  hand  is  to  connect  the 
Mitchell  series  of  relative  earnings  in  Masschusetts  mills  for 
the  years  1 860-1 880,  the  series  constructed  in  the  present 
study  from  the  original  exhibits  of  the  Aldrich  Report  for  the 
years  1880-1891  (both  of  these  presented  and  discussed  in 
Chapter  III),  and  some  single  series  summarizing  the  five 
occupational  scries  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  for  1890- 
1916  (presented  and  discussed  in  Chapter  IV). 

The  first  connection  is  a  simple  one  to  make.  As  shown 
above  in  Chapter  III,  the  application  of  the  same  statistical 
methods  to  the  data  of  the  135  occupational  series  of  the 
Aldrich  Report  used  by  Professor  Mitchell  and  to  the  74  occu- 
pational series  studied  for  the  years    1880-1891    gives  nearly 


92  WAGES    IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

identical  results  for  the  overlapping  year  1880  —  namely, 
weighted  average  relative  wages  of  153  and  155  respectively. 
The  simplest  and  at  the  same  time  probably  the  most  satisfac- 
tory method  of  connecting  these  two  curves  appears  to  be 
to  call  the  quotation  for  the  year  1880,  154,  and  to  leave 
unchanged  all  other  relatives  of  the  two  series.  The  element 
of  possible  error  involved  is  small  and  is  probably  no  greater 
than  would  enter  into  a  more  elaborate  computation. 

As  a  preliminary  step  to  the  making  of  the  second  connec- 
tion, that  of  the  series  just  completed  from  i860  to  1891  with 
the  material  covering  the  years  1 890-1916,  it  is  necessary  to 
reduce  the  occupational  series  constructed  from  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  data  for  Massachusetts  to  one  summary  series. 
This  has  been  done  by  taking  a  simple  average  for  each  year 
of  the  period  of  the  five  occupational  quotations  of  relative  full 
time  earnings.  The  series  composed  of  these  average  figures 
is,  in  view  of  the  close  correlation  of  the  occupational  series, 
serviceable  as  a  summary  of  changes  in  the  Massachusetts 
mills.     It  is  presented  in  column  (6)  of  Table  XIX. 

The  conversion  of  this  series  into  a  similar  series  continuing 
the  one  just  completed  to  1891,  using  i860  as  the  base(ioo), 
has  been  accomplished  by  the  application  of  a  formula  of  pro- 
portion— a  method  which,  while  not  quite  as  accurate  as  would 
be  an  entire  reworking  of  the  quotations  in  the  original  returns 
made  by  the  agents  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  is  suffi- 
ciently accurate  for  summary  purposes.  The  formula  used  is 
as  follows : 

X  (the  relative  wage  for  any  year  in  the  new  series  continu- 
ing the  old  series  for  1 860-1 891  :  the  corresponding  relative 
wage  of  the  old  series  for  1890-19 16  =172  (the  relative 
wage  for  1891  of  the  old  series  for  1 860-1 891)  :  100.4  (the 
relative  wage  for  1891  of  the  old  series  for  1890-1916). 

The  figures  of  the  new  continuous  series  of  relative  full  time 
earnings  for  the  entire  period  1 860-1916,  using  i860  as  the 
base,  are  presented  in  columns  (2)  and  (7)  of  Table  XIX,  and 
the  curve  based  on  these  quotations  is  plotted  as  a  solid  line 
on  Chart  XI. 


CONCLUSIONS 


93 


TABLE  XIX 

Wages  in  the  Massachusetts  Cotton  Manufacturing  Industry 
and  General  Prices,  1 860- 1 9 1 8 


^^ 

v<~.E 

U 

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- 

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M 

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«  S 

3  C 

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Relativ 

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Commo 

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— '^  B  ^ 

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^l^-s 

5E.S 

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vol 

ec-cj 

^  "- 

i860 

lOI 

100. 0 

1890 

100.8 

172.7 

80.1 

134.8 

I86I 

97 

97-7 

1891 

100.4 

172.0 

79.2 

134.8 

1862 

98 

115. 7 

1892 

100.4 

172.0 

75-3 

•37-6 

1863 

108 

159-4 

1893 

105.2 

180.2 

74-9 

142.1 

1864 

127 

225.2 

1894 

97-8 

167.5 

68.2 

123. 1 

1865 

140 

207.3 

1895 

96.1 

164.6 

66.4 

J23-3 

1866 

161 

184.6 

1896 

102.0 

174-7 

64.1 

127.7 

1867 

167 

165.3 

1897 

101.4 

173-7 

63.6 

127.7 

1868 

165 

161.4 

1898 

99-9 

171. 2 

66.2 

II3-5 

1869 

169 

157.2 

1899 

95-8 

164.1 

72.1 

126.2 

1870 

166 

1 40. 1 

1900 

110.5 

189.3 

78.4 

140.5 

I87I 

177 

130.0 

1901 

110.6 

189.5 

77.0 

140.5 

1872 

•83 

134-7 

1902 

111.3 

190.7 

80.1 

151-5 

1873 

178 

134.0 

1903 

114.7 

196.5 

80.6 

152-9 

1874 

163 

128.0 

1904 

114.2 

195-7 

80.1 

131.6 

1875 

150 

119.8 

1905 

116.8 

200.1 

82.2 

124.4 

1876 

'45 

iii.i 

1906 

126.0 

215.9 

86.9 

137-6 

1877 

142 

108.4 

1907 

140.0 

239-8 

91.9 

163.8 

1878 

145 

97-9 

1908 

133-2 

228.2 

87.1 

151.8 

IS79 

144 

93-9 

1909 

122.9 

210.5 

89.7 

139-5 

1880 

154 

104.6 

I9I0 

122.1 

209.2 

93-3 

139-5 

I88I 

149 

101.6 

149-Ot 

191 1 

121.0 

207.3 

91.6 

139-5 

1882 

157 

103.2 

149.0 

I9I2 

130.0 

222.7 

94-8 

150.1 

1883 

158 

97-6 

149.0 

I9I3 

132.2 

226.5 

95-9 

'53-4 

1884 

155 

88.9 

132.8 

1914 

133-9 

229.4 

94-9 

'53-4 

1885 

150 

82.1 

119.1 

1915 

95-9 

153-4 

1886 

153 

80.5 

126.9 

1916 

161.7 

276.9 

118.0 

172.8 

1887 

160 

81. 1 

128.8 

1917 

167.8 

208.3 

1888 

164 

83.6 

1 34- 1 

1918 

262.2 

1889 

169 

80.6 

134.8 

•  The  relative  full  time  earnings  shown  in  column  (fi)  have  as  the  base  (100)  the  average 
of  the  years  1890-189'.'. 

t  The  relative  lull  time  earnings  shown  in  columns  (2)  and  (7)  have  as  the  base  (100) 
the  quotations  for  January,  1860. 

J  As  explained  in  the  body  of  the  text  the  series  of  index  numbers  of  anniinl  average 
weaving  rates  presented  in  column  (t>)  of  Table  I  h.is  here  been  converted  into  a  similar  series 
having  as  the  starting  point  for  18S1  the  index  point  149,  which  corresponds  to  the  point  149  in 
the  scries  of  relative  lull  time  earnings. 

The  base  (10(1)  of  the  series  of  relative  wholesale  prices  of  commodities  in  general  is  the 
quotations  for  the  year  18f>0. 


u 


WAGES   IN   COTTON    MANUFACTURES 


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CONCLUSIONS  05 

From  inspection  of  Chart  XI  it  appears  that  relative  full  time 
earnings  dropped  from  the  high  point  of  183  attained  during 
the  greenback  period  in  the  year  1872  to  the  point  142  in  1877, 
and  that  the  latter  relative  wage  has  been  the  minimum  point 
since  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  And  the  long  continued 
upward  movement  since  1877  reached  in  1916  a  point  approxi- 
mately 177  per  cent  above  the  base  year  i860. 

So  much  concerning  the  movement  of  full  time  money  earn- 
ings, but  what  about  real  wages  as  measured  by  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  contents  of  pay  envelopes  over  commodities  in 
general?  To  help  answer  this  question  resort  has  been  had  to 
the  index  numbers  of  wholesale  prices  published  from  time  to 
time  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. ^  These 
index  numbers  have  been  revised  so  as  to  make  the  relative 
price  figures  for  i860  the  base  of  100  for  a  new  series,  which 
is  presented  in  columns  (3)  and  (8)  of  Table  XIX,  and  has 
served  as  the  basis  for  plotting  the  broken  or  dash  curve  on 
Chart  XI. 

As  is  commonly  known,  the  downward  movement  of  whole- 
sale prices  from  the  highest  point  attained  during  the  Civil 
War  did  not  conclude  with  the  resumption  of  specie  payments, 
but  was  merely  interrupted  slightly  in  1880,  1881  and  1882. 
In  agreement  with  the  general  movement,  of  prices  in  gold 
standard  countries,  the  decline  continued  until  in  the  United 
States  the  minimum  point  was  reached  in  1 897,  the  index  number 
for  that  year  (using  i860  as  the  base  of  100)  being  6^.6.  After 
1897  the  price  movement  was  steadily  upward  until  in  191 3, 
just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  the  index  number 
was  95.9  —  not  quite  up  to  the  level  of  the  pre-war  figure  of 
i860.  War  conditions  since  1914  have  resulted  in  bringing 
the  index  number  well  above  the  base  line  of  i860  to  a  point 
in  1917  (using  annual  average  figures)  about  68  per  cent  above 
the  level  of  i860. 

Comparison  of  the  curves  of  relative  full  time  earnings  and 
of  relative  wholesale  prices  of  commodities  in  general  plotted 

I.     Especially  to  Riillelins  140  (  pji.  177,  17S)  and  181  (pp.  264-266)  and  to  the 
November,  1918,  number  of  the  Monthly  Labor  Review  (_p.  88). 


96  WAGES    IN    COTTON    MANUFACTURES 

on  Chart  XI  shows  clearly  that  from  1867  to  1897,  with  the 
exception  of  the  latter  part  of  the  greenback  period  not  only 
was  the  purchasing  power  of  the  dollar  increasing  but  the 
purchasing  power  of  the  contents  of  cotton  mill  employees' 
full  time  pay  envelopes  was  increasing.  And  when,  after  1897, 
the  course  of  commodity  prices  became  radically  altered,  the 
wage  movement  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  of  Massa- 
chusetts kept  very  close  pace  with  this  changed  movement. 
So  that,  making  no  allowance  for  fluctuations  in  the  conditions 
of  employment,  it  appears  that  the  gain  in  real  earnings  secured 
between  i860  and  19 16  is  to  be  assigned  to  the  years  before 
rather  than  to  those  after  1897. 

Finally,  it  is  worth  while  to  note  the  relationship  between 
changes  of  piece  rates  and  those  of  relative  full  time  earnings. 
In  column  (6)  of  Table  I  (Chapter  11)  there  appears  a  series 
of  index  numbers  of  annual  averages  of  weaving  rates  at  Fall 
River.  The  base  (100)  of  this  series  in  the  weaving  rate  pre- 
vailing thioughout  1881.  In  order  to  secure  comparability  of 
the  data  concerning  weaving  rates  with  those  concerning  the 
movement  of  full  time  earnings,  the  figures  of  column  (6)  of 
Table  I,  just  referred  to,  have  been  converted  into  a  new  series, 
still  using  the  year  1881  as  a  starting  point,  but  calling  this 
point  149  (the  relative  full  time  earnings  figure  for  1881, 
when  i860  is  the  base)  instead  of  lOO,  and  computing  for  each 
year  since  1881  a  pew  figure  which  has  the  same  relationship 
to  149  as  the  corresponding  figure  of  the  old  series  had  to  100. 
This  new  series  is  shown  in  columns  (4)  and  (9)  of  Table 
XIX,  and  from  it  there  has  been  plotted  the  dotted  line  curve  of 
Chart  XL 

With  this  curve  added  to  the  diagram  there  is  made  to  appear 
in  a  striking  way  a  phenomenon  which  may  have  passed  unno- 
ticed in  the  reading  of  the  preceding  pages.  Although  in  the 
years  succeeding  188 1  until  the  time  of  the  second  sliding  scale 
experiment  the  piece  rate  at  Fall  River  fluctuated  back  and 
forth  within  a  very  narrow  range  of  movement,  the  relative  full' 
time  earnings  climbed  upward  quite  steadily.  Even  the  strong 
upward  swing  of  the  piece  rate  in  1907  was  of  brief  duration, 


CONCLUSIONS  97 

and  not  until  the  war  conditions  of  1916  were  reached  did  the 
piece  rate  get  very  far  outside  the  range  of  the  preceding 
thirty-five  years.  In  short,  although  there  is  a  rather  close 
correspondence  between  the  minor  fluctuations  of  the  two 
curves,  the  general  directions  of  their  movements  have  been 
those  of  divergence.  While  it  is  not  possible,  because  of  the 
nature  of  the  data  studied,  and  especially  because  the  piece 
rates  are  distinctly  local  and  the  data  concerning  full  time 
earnings  cover  a  wider  field  of  investigation,  and  also  because 
the  series  of  relative  full  time  earnings  refers  to  both  piece  and 
time  workers,  to  treat  the  evidence  here  presented  as  very 
conclusive,  it  appears  not  unreasonable  to  see  in  these  figures 
and  curves  an  indication  of  the  beneficial  effects  to  workers  of 
improvements  in  technical  processes ;  to  consider  that  the 
introduction  of  new  machines  and  new  methods  has  in  a  very 
concrete  way  resulted  in  industrial  gains  which  have  to  an 
appreciable  extent  been  shared  by  employees ;  and  at  least  to 
consider  that  the  increase  of  real  wages  prior  to  1897  and  their 
maintenance  since  that  date  are  not  solely  to  be  explained  in 
terms  of  rates  of  wages  or  of  hours  of  labor  or  of  a  combination 
of  the  two. 


98  WAGES   IN   COTTON   MANUFACTURES 


APPENDIX 

•THE   TEXT   OF   THE    SLIDING    SCALE   AGREEMENT    OF 
MAY    14,    1907  1 

It  Is  agreed  by  the  Cotton  Manufacturers'  Association  of 
Fall  River  and  the  Fall  River  Mule  Spinners'  Association,  the 
Fall  River  Weavers'  Progressive  Association,  the  Fall  River 
Loom  Fixers'  Association,  the  Card  Room  Protective  Associa- 
tion of  Fall  River  and  the  Slashers'  Union  of  Fall  River  that 
wages  in  Fall  River,  so  far  as  the  mills  represented  by  the 
Manufacturers'  Association  and  the  operatives  who  are  members 
of  the  above  organizations  arc  concerned,  shall  be  determined 
in  the  following  manner,  which  shall  be  binding  upon  the  mills 
represented  by  the  Manufacturers'  Association  and  upon  the 
members  of  the  various  operative  associations  until  changed  or 
terminated  as  hereafter  provided. 

1.  That  21.78  cents  per  cut  shall  be  the  recognized  stan- 
dard price  for  a  margin  of  95  points,  based  on  the  cost  of  8 
pounds  of  Middling  Upland  cotton  and  the  average  selling 
price  of  45  yards  of  28  in.  64  x  64  print  cloth  and  33.1 1  yards 
of  38^  in.  64  X  64  print  cloth.  Quotations  from  the  "New 
York  Journal  of  Commerce"  shall  be  considered  authoritative. 

2.  The  standard  of  wages  shall  be  fixed  every  six  months, 
beginning  the  last  Monday  in  May  and  November  of  each  year, 
and  no  oftener,  and  shall  be  based  on  the  average  margin,  as 
fixed  above,  for  the  previous  six  months. 

Prices  for  weaving  shall  be  as  follows : 


I.     Quoted  verbatim  from  The  Member's  Contribution  Book  of  the  Card  and 
Picker  Room  Protective  Association  of  Fall  River  and  Vicinity,  pp.  16-18. 


APPENDIX 

With  a  margin  of 

With 

a  margin  of 

1 15  points 

23.96 

85 

points 

20.69 

1 10  points 

23.42 

80 

points 

19.66 

105  points 

22.87 

75 

points 

18.68 

95  points 

21.78 

72; 

y2  points 

18.00 

99 


but  there  shall  be  no  change  in  prices  on  either  the  ascending 
or  descending  scale  unless  the  margin  has  reached  a  point 
named  in  the  above  schedule.  Eighteen  cents  per  cut  shall  be 
the  minimum  rate  paid  for  weaving;  23.96  cents  shall  be  the 
maximum.  Wages  in  all  departments  other  than  weaving  shall 
be  adjusted  on  the  price  for  weaving  as  above  determined. 

3.  No  change  shall  be  made  in  this  agreement  and  it  shall 
remain  in  force  unless  the  Cotton  Manufacturers'  Association 
on  the  one  side  or  the  members  of  the  various  operatives' 
organizations  on  the  other  side  give  notice  of  the  proposed 
change  at  least  three  months  prior  to  the  last  Monday  of  May 
and  November  in  each  year. 


ACCEPTED  BY  THE 
DEPARTMENT  OF  ECONOMICS  AND  SOCIAL  INSTITUTIONS 

JUNE,   1916 


/ 


5  8  4  6     2 


This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


I  AUG  8    1942 


l"or]ii  I,-!.)-  1  ",,„  7,:;  1 


HD   Howard  - 
4966  The  movement 
G8U5  Qf  wages  in 
the  cotton 
manufacturing  In- 
dustry of  New 
England  since 
1860. 

cans 


IDIHIHNMK.IUNAI  llBKAHnA 

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UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 

UBRARY 


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(umntitif. 


